Last Sacrifice
by harlett22
Summary: This is my version of Last Sacrifice from the Vampire Academy series. It basically picks up where Spirit Bound left off, and most of it is my predictions on what will happen. Let me know what you think!
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

What sucks most about being locked away awaiting trial for the murder of the royal queen is waiting. Oh yeah, and the fact that I didn't really do it. Not that it matters. Mikhail put it perfectly when he had said the Council wanted me to be guilty. They wanted to be able to elect a new monarch knowing that the person responsible for the death of the previous monarch was getting the justice she deserved.

And me? Well, I would have been my most obvious suspect too, to be honest. I mean, I didn't try very hard to hide my dislike for her, or the age decree she passed. So much so that I had the nerve to tell her so, as well as threaten her, publicly. Looking back, that probably wasn't the best decision I've ever made.

Not that I had made very many good decisions over the last few months. Ever since Dimitri, my former mentor-turned-lover-turned-strigoi and then back to dhampir, had become strigoi, my life had seemed to become one wrong turn after the other.

First there was quitting school during my senior year to go to Siberia and find Dimitri. Which, while I had good intentions (I had wanted to free him from his undead state), turned out to be an utter failure when I couldn't manage to kill him. What was worse was that I had done irreparable damage to my relationship with my best friend, Lissa, not to mention my little stunt had probably cost me my only chance at being her Guardian.

I probably could have still been someone's Guardian, though, if it wasn't for the fact that while I was in Siberia I had met Mark and Oksana. Oksana was a spirit user, like Lissa, and Mark was her shadow-kissed Guardian, like me.

All Moroi, those are good living vampires, possess magic over one of the five elements: Earth, wind, fire, water, and spirit, spirit being the rarest and one that not many people understand.

With cases like Lissa and me, and Mark and Oksana, the spirit users had brought us back after we had died bonding us to them forever. Thus the reason Mark and I were considered shadow-kissed. We had both crossed over and been brought back.

Anyway, Mark and Oksana had told me about another spirit user, Robert Doru, who had claimed that he had brought a strigoi back to life. And well, seeing as Dimitri (the love of my life) at the time had still been strigoi, I decided that I needed to speak to Robert.

The problem was that no one knew where he was, seeing as he had gone kind of ape shit crazy, a side-effect of wielding spirit.

What was worse, one of the few people who may have had an idea as to where he was, was his half-brother, Victor Dashkov, a royal who Lissa and I had incidentally had imprisoned after he tried to kidnap Lissa in order to use her spirit to heal his disease.

Seeing as Victor saw no reason to divulge Robert's whereabouts while behind bars, I, along with the help of Lissa, and another dhampir, Eddie, snuck out of court, flew to Alaska, where the Moroi prison Tarasov is located, and broke him out.

And then lost him and his brother in Las Vegas.

That little escapade probably lost me any chance that I had to be anyone's Guardian, and cemented me a nice boring office job here at court.

So yeah, lately, my life was just one big mistake after another.

One good thing did come from freeing Victor though, we were able to find out how to bring strigoi back, a stake charmed with spirit and driven through the heart by a spirit user. Which was how Lissa saved Dimitri.

Not that it did me much good. While Dimitri basically worshipped the ground Lissa walked on, he had shunned me, telling me he no longer loved me.

_Love fades. Mine did._ He had told me. And then, just as the realization that the opposite is true too, love grows, and I was finally willing to allow myself to move on and give Adrian a chance, well this whole killing Queen Tatiana mess had to pop up.

And, oh, does it get better. My pirate-mobster father, Abe Mazur, had the good grace to tell me today that if they find me guilty of the murder, I will be executed.

Not that I was too worried about all that. He had also said that I would not go to trial, and apparently has a big secret plan. And from what I have seen from my father, his plans are usually successful.

But hope that Abe would come through for me with one of his elaborate schemes, did not change the fact that I was stuck inside this god-awful cell with nothing to do but turn my depressing thoughts over in my head.

Nor did it change the fact that apparently Tatiana's dying wish was for me to go off and find Lissa's illegitimate brother or sister so that she could take her place on the Council. Something that I would have loved to do, seeing as Lissa deserved to be on that damned Council. However, once again, being stuck in a jail cell proved as sort of a hindrance.

So instead of doing something productive, like, I don't know, finding Lissa's sibling or hunting down Tatiana's true killer, I found myself stuck behind bars, with nothing to occupy me but my own thoughts. Which, by the way, I was starting to wonder why anyone liked to be around me, because I was kind of finding myself extremely boring.

That isn't to say that I would have minded someone coming to visit with me. In fact, at this point I wouldn't mind anyone coming, just as long as they had something informative, or at the very least interesting to tell me.

As if she could hear, which she couldn't because our psychic bond only worked one way, I heard Lissa's thoughts in my head. _Rose, you really should see this._ And just like that, I was sucked into her head.

She was standing with Christian, in the courtyard, which was exactly where she had been when I had checked on her earlier. Only now, Adrian and Dimitri joined them. And Adrian did not look happy.

He was staring at Dimitri with a look of pure hatred that I can tell, thanks to the bond, had Lissa slightly upset. She always seemed to get like that when it comes to Dimitri now a days. Over-protective that is, something to do with the fact that she brought him back and felt all motherly towards him now.

Dimitri just stared back at Adrian, his face carefully blank in true Guardian fashion.

"How could you have just let them take her? You have to know she didn't do this!" Adrian's green eyes flashed as he spoke.

"I know she didn't do this." Dimitri stated simply, his brown eyes betraying no emotion.

"Then why did you let them take her? Is it because you were jealous? Jealous because she moved on? Or is it because you really never gave a fuck about her in the first place?" I had never seen Adrian so angry, and as he stared at Dimitri, waiting for his response, I couldn't help but brace myself for the answer either.

Dimitri remained quiet for a long moment, before something, regret maybe, flashed in his eyes. All too quickly, though, his face was blank once more. "She told me to stop." Disappointment washed over me at his answer. I already knew why he had stopped; I was more interested in hearing his answer to the last two questions.

Not that I should have expected him to answer them, he never was one for showing emotion.

Adrian rolled his eyes. "Yeah, like that should have stopped you. If I had been there, I wouldn't have stopped fighting for her, even if she told me to. I would have done whatever I thought was best for her."

Once again, Dimitri's eyes flashed, with anger this time. "What was best for her? What? Like treating her like a blood whore?" He asked and immediately it was obvious that he wished he had not let his temper get the best of him and that he had kept his mouth shut.

My hand flew to my neck, and my fingers ran over the puncture wounds that were a result of allowing Adrian to drink my blood last night.

Adrian's eyes narrowed in response. "And you have room to talk? I saw her after she came back from Siberia. I saw what you did to her. And I have to see it every time I look in her eyes. What you did to her, it haunts her."

Dimitri took a step forward, hate twisting in his features, and then thinking better of it, turned his back on Adrian. "Which is why you're better for her." He said softly, and then his eyes locked on Lissa's, etched with sadness and defeat, and for a brief second I felt like he was staring right at me.

Lissa looked back and forth between Adrian and Dimitri for a moment and straightened herself, making herself look every bit the royalty that she was. "Well, if the two of you are done bickering, I'm going to go see Rose, are you coming?"

Instantly, I pulled myself from her head. "Guards!" I yelled, hoping that if it worked for Dimitri, it would work for me.

Mikhail, who seemed to be one of my permanent guards, walked up to my cell. "Yes?"

"Please, please don't let Dimitri Belikov down here. Anyone else is fine, but not him."

Mikhail arched an eyebrow at me, something that reminded me painfully of Dimitri and then shrugged his shoulders. "Hathaway has requested that Dimitri Belikov not be granted access to see her." He stated into the invisible earpiece device that served as a means of communication for the guardians.

A half a second later I could hear Dimitri's voice from up at the front desk. "Are you sure?" He asked, confusion evident in his words.

There was an inaudible answer in response and then Dimitri's voice rang out again, loud enough that there was no mistaking that he was actually speaking to me.

"Fine. That's fine. I just wanted to make sure that she was okay."

I couldn't help but wince at the irritation in his voice. Irritation that had once been a goal of mine to achieve. Before, when I was his student. Before he was strigoi.

I could only live in the past for a moment before Lissa was before me, Christian and Adrian at her tail.

"Rose, how are you?" Lissa asked, the compassion in her voice reflected in her jade eyes.

I shrugged. "Just peachy considering that I am locked up behind bars and facing death for a crime I didn't commit."

Lissa winced at the word death and then regained her composure. "Are they treating you well?"

I was about to laugh in response, but Christian beat me to it. "Come one Liss, she's accused of murdering the Queen. They're not going to be giving her any special treatment." Christian's icy blue eyes flashed to me and then he smiled gravely. "Sorry to be so blunt."

"Well, I couldn't have put it better myself."

Lissa glared at Christian for a moment and then at me. "What I meant is, are they being mean to you? Because if they are," for a brief second Lissa's eyes flashed with spirit-induced darkness and I shot Christian a warning glance.

He caught on quickly, draping his arm over Lissa's shoulders and pulling her back from the bars. "It's alright Liss, I'm sure they are treating Rose just like they would any other accused murderer."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Liss don't worry about me. I'm strong, I can deal with it. Besides, they aren't being too bad. They mostly just ignore me."

Adrian, who had been leaned against the wall across from my cell, his face down-turned, chose this moment to look up. As I saw his face, I had to work to suppress my gasp.

Haggard came to mind. There were dark circles under his eyes, which were slightly wild, his own spirit-induced craziness threatening to take him over. "Rose," he began, his voice a pitiful whisper.

In an instant, as his eyes met my own, his demeanor changed and he rushed to my bars. "I won't let them convict you. I have a plan. I'm going to get you out of here. I love you, I won't let them hurt you." He exclaimed passionately.

"Adrian," I whispered, reaching through the bars to touch his face. "I know that you won't let anything happen to me."

A thought popped into my head and then I motioned for Lissa to come closer.

I looked over at the Guardians, who moved in closer when they noticed Adrian and Lissa's proximity to me. Judging by the looks on their faces, I only had a second to spit out what I wanted them to do, before the Guardians broke us up.

"Lissa. Adrian." I whispered. "I need you to use compulsion to get the guards to go upstairs for a minute. I have an idea."

"Hey, you need to stop whispering to each other." One guardian, a tall man with no hair and a face only his mother could love, told us.

Lissa and Adrian spun on their heels and faced the five guardians watching over me.

Lissa was the one who spoke, though it was obvious that Adrian was silently reinforcing her message. "You all need to go upstairs." She said, and through the bond I could feel her magic start to well up.

"Why would we-," the Guardian who had spoken began, before his eyes glazed over and Lissa's compulsion took hold. He turned to his fellow guardians, all of whom had similar dreamy looks on their faces. "Come on guys, we need to go upstairs." And just like that, they were gone.

After watching the Guardians' retreating backs, Lissa, Christian, and Adrian all turned to look at me. "What was that about?" Lissa asked.

"I need to get out of here. I have a job that Tatiana left me to do, and obviously I need to find Tatiana's killer myself because none of them," I waved my hand towards the upstairs, indicating the Guardians, "are going to look further than me. I have a plan, and I need you all to come back tonight at, say one o'clock. Bring Abe." The three of them looked as though they were going to comment, but the sound of the Guardians coming back down the stairs quieted them.

"You guys better go, before you get me in more trouble." I told them.

Christian nodded and headed towards the stairs with a half-hearted wave good-bye.

Adrian leaned into the bars and kissed me on the cheek. "Stay sane little dhampir." He whispered, and then he too headed up the stairs.

I kissed him on his cheek. "You do the same." I whispered in his ear.

Lissa stared at me for a moment, and then sighed. "Dimitri is going to want to know why you banned him from coming down here."

I shrugged, not really sure how to answer. "I don't now why Liss. Just tell him, that I'm finally starting to get over him, and that I don't want to see him. There really is no point anyway, all it will do is hurt me in the end."

Lissa nodded, and then with one last look, headed back up the stairs, leaving me to sit and wait until they came back tonight.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

Time goes by a lot more slowly when you are locked behind bars with nothing to do. Trust me, I should know.

It felt like hours had passed since my friends had come, but according to Mikhail it had only been about forty-five minutes.

So with nothing to do but wait until night, which happened to be broad day light in the Moroi world, I had to entertain myself by listening in on the conversations of the Guardians watching me, which was how I found out that the Council had decided to make Dimitri a Guardian again, and thinking over my plan to escape.

Since, at the moment, the Guardians weren't talking about anything particularly interesting to me, I decided to go over my plan one more time. It was pretty simple actually.

I would use Christian to cause a distraction that would require most of the Guardians, and Adrian and Lissa to compel the remaining Guardians into letting me out of here. From there, I would simply stroll out the front doors of the Guardian building, disguised, of course, probably by one of Lissa's charms, and then Adrian, Christian, Lissa, and I would get into a car that Abe would hopefully have waiting for us.

After that, my plans were a little murky, seeing as I had to figure out where to start my search for Lissa's sibling and Tatiana's murderer. But I had to take one step at a time, and my first step was to get the four of us safely out of here.

Las Vegas was a definite possibility for step two, seeing as that was where Eric Dragomir had allegedly been depositing money into an unidentified woman's bank account, according to my Alchemist friend Sydney Sage.

As far as finding Tatiana's murderer, well, I didn't even know where to begin. I knew that the true murderer had to be at court, and someone who had access to my room, since they would have had to have gotten in there some how to get my stake, but after that I was drawing a blank.

Really, it could have been any number of people. There were a lot of people, Moroi and dhampir alike, that were upset by the passing of Tatiana Ivashkov's age decree. The decree changed the age in which dhampir's became Guardians from eighteen to sixteen.

And there were even more people, I'm sure, who wanted me dead for various reasons. And framing me for the queen's death seemed a sure-fire way to have me killed without getting their hands dirty.

An interesting tidbit of conversation from two Guardians drew my attention away from my internal musings, and I leaned my ear against the bars to get a better listen.

"It's too bad that the Dragomir Princess doesn't have a quorum." The first Guardian, a woman with short blonde hair, stated.

"And why do you say that?" The second, Mikhail, asked.

"Didn't you hear? The Council wanted to nominate her as the queen, but it is the same problem as why she can't be on the Council in the first place. No family, means no place on the Royal Council."

"That is unfortunate."

I had heard enough of this conversation to know that finding Lissa's brother or sister had just been bumped up a couple of notches on my priority scale.

It also presented me with another problem. If Lissa ran away with me, again, then it would ruin her chance to rule the Moroi. And if anyone was worthy of being followed it was Vasilisa Dragomir. Not to mention that my sudden escape and her absence from court would implicate her in my escape, and possibly get her arrested.

My whole life I had one thing ingrained in my brain. _They come first._ I used to live by that adage in its entirety, but lately I had been putting myself before Lissa way too much. I wouldn't do it again. Even though it would hurt Lissa, hell just thinking about it was killing me; I knew that Lissa would not be able to come with me when I went on the run. It also meant that before I left, I would have to make sure that Lissa would be well protected in my absence, and unfortunately for me, there was only one person I trusted with Lissa's security.

Somewhere during my realization, I must have fallen asleep because I found myself slipping into the familiar feeling of an Adrian dream. Which considering the epiphany I had just had was kind of perfect.

I looked around and noticed the familiar landscape. For today's dream, Adrian had chosen St. Vladimir's Academy.

He had also been liberal with his imagination when it came to my clothing, or lack thereof. I was in a pair of short white shorts, with a low-cut pink tank top. Hanging from my neck was my nazar.

"Really Adrian, I'm locked behind bars and you're dressing me up like this?" I asked him with a small smile.

Adrian looked as good as ever. His brown hair styled in its usual messy way, his pale green eyes glinting with humor. He wore a perfectly presentable pair of khakis along with a white button-up shirt that he left un-tucked.

"Ah, little dhampir, I think you look ravishing." He cocked his head to the side and an appreciative smile spread across his lips. "Nice legs."

I scowled at him and indicated his clothing. "How come you get to be fully clothed and I am stuck wearing this sad excuse for clothing?"

He just shrugged. "My dream, my rules."

"I see. So what has caused you to lure me into your fictional dream world today?"

Adrian's face registered surprise for just a moment. "You don't know? I thought it would be obvious. I want to know what you're super-secretive plan is."

"Oh. Well, we're going to bust me out of jail." I began, and then launched into full details of my plan, including my realization that I would have to leave Lissa behind.

When I finished, Adrian cleared his throat. "Are you going to leave me behind too?"

I sized Adrian up for a moment before answering him honestly. "Yes."

"Rose, I-," he began but I cut him off.

"At first Adrian. Just long enough that you won't be implicated in my escape. After that, come to me in my sleep and I'll tell you where to find me. And then you, me, and Abe will begin searching for Lissa's family."

Adrian nodded before answering. "Well, I guess that's okay then. It's pretty crazy that Lissa has a brother or sister out there isn't it? I wonder what she is going to say."

"Adrian, you can't tell her. If she knows, she will want to come, and then she won't ever be queen. You have to keep it between you and me."

Adrian observed me a moment, obviously deciding if he wanted to argue with me or not, and finally nodded in agreement. "Alright Rose. I will keep it between the two of us."

I smiled my thanks and then stepped into Adrian's arms, savoring the way they felt around me. "Hey, Adrian."

"Hmmm?"

"I know that you have to leave soon, so can I ask you for a favor?"

Adrian laughed. "Always a favor with you little dhampir. Go ahead, you know I can't refuse you."

"Will you tell Dimitri to come see me? Like as soon as you leave here?"

I felt Adrian go tense for a moment before relaxing, though when he spoke again his voice was strained. "Sure, why do you want to see him?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Don't worry I'm not going to throw myself at him or anything. I need to ask him to take care of something while I'm gone."

"Lissa?" He asked.

"Lissa." I answered.

"Sure, Rose. Sure." Adrian bent down to kiss me, and I found myself returning his kiss with equal fervor, and then as quickly as he had come he melted away, leaving me in a dreamless sleep.

Banging on the bars, however, woke me up soon after.

"Hathaway, did you okay Belikov to come see you?" Mikhail asked me.

I was still groggy from sleep, so it took me a moment to register what he was asking. "Huh, Belikov? Wait-Oh, Dimitri?"

"Uh huh, he's upstairs throwing a fit saying that you said you needed to see him."

"Uh, yeah. Send him down."

A few seconds after Mikhail gave the okay, Dimitri came down the stairs, his brown hair pulled back at the nape of his neck and his black leather duster fluttering behind him.

"_Roz-_Rose." He said, catching himself before he called me by his nickname for me. "Lord Ivashkov came to me and said you needed to see me?"

I looked meaningfully at the guardians around us, and Dimitri picked up the hint I was trying to give.

He turned to the five guardians watching me and cleared his throat. "Could I have a moment alone with her please?" He asked, his voice ringing with that Guardian authority that I had always found so damned sexy.

The guardians exchanged awkward glances before shrugging. "Are you sure about this Belikov? She's apparently dangerous, so you might not want to be with her alone.

Anger flashed in his brown eyes as he looked over at the other guardians. "I know what she is capable of. I taught her. And I know that she will not do anything to me, especially while behind bars, so please give us a moment."

After exchanging more awkward glances, the guardians shrugged again and walked up the stairs, Mikhail the only one who stayed behind.

Dimitri grimaced at him and inclined his head towards the stairway. "Guardian Tanner, some privacy between Miss Hathaway and myself?"

Mikhail shook his head slowly. "No disrespect, Guardian Belikov, but I have to stay down here until you leave so that Rose is not alone when you leave. I will however walk away so that I can not hear your conversation."

Dimitri waved his hand dismissively. "If you must."

And then he turned his gorgeous brown eyes on me, and I lost myself for a moment. "How are you Rose?"

I had to shake my head to clear it. "Well, comrade, I am in jail for a murder I didn't commit, and the evidence is so strong against me that if I go to trial I will get convicted and sentenced to death. So yeah, things could be better."

Passion flickered in Dimitri's eyes. "You will not be convicted. You will not die."

"Yeah, if I go to trial I will die." I drew my hand up to my face and examined my fingers, trying to adopt my usual Rose cockiness. "Which is why I am not going to trial."

Dimitri raised his eyebrow (I still wish I could do that!) "Rose that doesn't make sense. How are you," Dimitri glanced at my face and he must have seen my plan there because his face lit up with comprehension. "Oh. No, Rose, you can't. You will just make things worse. The Guardians will find you."

"Dimitri, I don't really have a choice. I am getting out of here. I have some things I need to do myself, one of them being finding Tatiana's murderer."

Dimitri lowered his eyes to the ground. "_Roza," _he whispered so low that I didn't think he meant me to hear. His eyes met mine again, and I saw sadness as he spoke his next words. "I can't help you escape. I just got back my title, I can't do it."

I smiled weakly in response. "I know that, comrade. That's not why I asked you here. I need you to do something for me."

"Anything. Anything aside from helping you escape."

"I have some people coming with me. But Lissa can't come, she has too much to lose." At the thought of leaving Lissa, a tear welled up in my eye.

I hastily looked away from Dimitri and wiped the tears from my eyes. When I looked at him again, I noticed that his face had become Guardian blank once more. "Dimitri, I need you to take care of Lissa for me. Keep her safe. Please, I know you don't love me anymore, but if you ever did, please, keep her safe for me. Make sure she stays happy and lives her life fully." I begged.

Once again, pain flashed in Dimitri's eyes before he reined it in. "I'll keep her safe until you return, Rose."

I shook my head, in response. "It's if, Dimitri. If I return. If I don't, you have to keep her safe for the rest of her life."

Dimitri always said that part of our connection stemmed from the fact that we both had an unreal sense of duty. I was reminded of that as he looked at me, and nodded once. "I promise." And as he turned and walked up the steps, the look of regret on his face did not go unnoticed.

"Good bye Dimitri." I said softly, saying my final good-bye to my first love.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Dimitri didn't waste time fulfilling my wish. Thirty minutes after his visit I was sucked into Lissa's head.

She was sitting in the courtroom, looking up at the remaining Council members, and I could feel her apprehension through our bond. She had been summoned to the Court and truly had no idea why she was there.

After a moment of long silence, Nathan Ivashkov, Adrian's father stood up and looked over at Lissa. "Princess Vasilisa, you have been summoned here today, because it was brought to our attention by the newly instated Guardian Belikov, that with Rose in jail, one of your Guardians in the hospital and the other dead, you are currently without protection. As such, Guardian Belikov has offered to resume his post as your Guardian if you wish." It was obvious that Lord Ivashkov thought that this whole proceeding was a waste of time.

His indifference towards the issue was just another reason to add to my list of reasons why I didn't like him, right there next to the fact that he treated Adrian like shit and basically shunned me the one time I went to dinner at Adrian's parents' house.

I could feel Lissa's uneasiness. She didn't want any guardian but me and silently I urged her to just take the damned offer. Once again, I wished that our bond worked both ways.

Finally, Lissa took a deep breath and smiled at the Council. "I think that Guardian Belikov would be a perfect match for when Rose is found innocent and made my Guardian. So I accept his offer." At the sound of my name Dimitri flinched with guilt, and I knew that he felt bad allowing Lissa to believe that I would be getting out of jail the legal way.

Honestly, her ignorance to what was really about to happen made me flinch as well.

"It's settled then. Guardian Belikov will resume his post as Vasilisa's Guardian. Meeting adjourned."

Just like that, everyone began to exit the courtroom, including Lissa and Dimitri. And I snapped back into my own head and my own cell, to quietly await my chance at freedom.

I fell asleep, and before I knew it, Mikhail was at my bars waking me up, again. "You have visitors. A lot actually." He told me.

I nodded. "Let them in."

Mikhail spoke into his headset and a few seconds later Abe, Lissa, Adrian, Christian, and (much to my surprise) Dimitri and Eddie came down the stairs.

Dimitri and Eddie glanced over at Mikhail, and the other four Guardians watching over me. "Guardian Castile and myself can watch over her, you can go upstairs." Dimitri told them.

This time, the Guardians didn't hesitate, they all just shrugged and headed up the stairs.

As soon as they were gone, Abe turned to me, his expression amused. "Okay, Rosemarie, what is this brilliant plan you have thought up?"

I exchanged a brief glance with Adrian before I spoke and he nodded in encouragement. "I need to get out of here. There are some, er, things," I started, purposely avoiding Lissa's eyes, "that Tatiana left me to do, and I can't do them behind bars and I definitely can't do them if I'm dead. So I came up with a plan. Abe I need you to come up with a car and meet me outside the Court gates in an hour. Can you do that?"

Abe put up his hands palms out and shrugged. "That won't be a problem. But how do you plan to get out of here?"

"Well," I turned to Christian, "I need you to make a distraction. Set something on fire, something that will require the attention of most of the Guardians." I turned to Eddie and smiled. "I wasn't expecting you, but this actually works out. You can help Christian with the distraction."

Eddie and Christian nodded their understanding and then I turned my attention to Lissa and Adrian. "I need the two of you to compel the remaining Guardians into letting me out of here, and Lissa, I need you to make me a charm that will alter my appearance."

Lissa pulled a small ring out of her pocket and handed it to me. "Done."

"How did you know to do this?" I asked in complete surprise.

"Rose, I was with you when we broke into Tarasov," she began, but paused when we heard Dimitri gasp in surprise.

"That was you? You were the ones who busted Victor Dashkov out of prison?"

Both of us turned to him with apologetic looks. "Sorry I forgot you didn't know about that." Lissa told him.

Dimitri looked over at me. "Rose, what were you doing while I was gone?"

"Freeing fugitives, ruining my life." I answered hurriedly. "Anyway, that's the plan."

Christian sighed and looked back and forth between Abe and I. "So in an hour then, I create a distraction and you bust out of here?"

"That's the plan."

"Let's do it then." Christian looked apprehensive, but he was willing to do it, so we all synchronized our clocks, and then Christian, Eddie, and Abe left.

Adrian, Lissa, and Dimitri stayed with me. "I thought you wouldn't help." I whispered to Dimitri when Adrian and Lissa were thoroughly engrossed with practicing spirit with one another.

"I'm not helping. I'm just making sure the Dragomir Princess stays out of trouble." He answered, with a small smile.

After that things stayed quiet for a while.

We all knew it when Christian and Eddie managed their distraction. There was a loud bang and the smell of smoke filled the air.

Mikhail came running down the stairs and to my cell promptly unlocking it. "The building is on fire! Everyone out!" He exclaimed.

I had to hold back my surprise, when I asked Christian to create a distraction I hadn't meant for him to blow up the Guardian's building.

Mikhail reached for me to cuff me, and Lissa and Adrian turned on him. "Mikhail, let her walk out of here, and forget what just happened."

Mikhail must have been prone to compulsion because it took him over quickly and he backed away from me.

"Okay." He replied simply and then he turned and ran back up the stairs.

I slipped Lissa's ring on and smiled as Adrian and Dimitri gasped. "You look nothing like you!" Adrian said excitedly.

"Huh, what do I look like?" I asked.

"A blonde Moroi, kind of like Lissa." Adrian turned to Lissa and smiled encouragingly. "You did a really good job on that one Liss."

Lissa beamed back at Adrian and opened her mouth to speak, but Dimitri cut her off. "Maybe now is not the time. We need to get out of here before the building collapses, or worse Rose gets caught trying to escape."

With that, we all sprinted up the steps and out of the door, undetected thanks to the commotion going on in the front of the building.

Several water using Moroi were attempting to put the fire out, while other Moroi and Guardians were trying to figure out what started the fire in the first place. And hidden behind some trees, Eddie and Christian were giggling profusely at their handiwork.

I waved at them and took off running towards the entrance where Abe was waiting with a shiny black car, not unlike the ones that the Academy used to use to cart us around to places. At the gate, the Guardians stopped us, but let me through with little examination, and probably a little compulsion from Lissa.

I swung the door to the car open and looked over at my group of friends. Adrian sauntered over to me and I met his gaze and held it for a moment.

"Come find me Ivashkov." I whispered him.

Adrian smiled his calm lazy smile. "You better believe I will, little dhampir. In three days, after Tatiana's funeral I'm coming to you." He said, and then he kissed me good-bye.

I turned to Dimitri and hugged him, unable to hide my surprise when he hugged me back. "Stay safe _Roza._ And come back." He whispered into my ear.

I kissed him on the cheek. "Thank-you Dimitri." And then with one last look in his eyes I spoke my next words. "Good-Bye."

Lissa reached for the handle to the back door and I hit the lock button.

"Rose, you locked it!"

I turned to Lissa, and took a deep breath, knowing that what I was about to do would be one of the hardest things I would ever do. "Liss, you can't come with me. You need to stay here. Dimitri will take care of you, okay?" I told her, trying to keep the tears from my eyes as tears began to spill from hers.

Lissa looked at me uncomprehendingly for a moment, and then her face set in an angry mask. "You promised me Rose! You promised after you left me to go after him that you would never leave me behind again! You can't leave me behind! You owe me. After what I went through for you, you owe me!"

I tried to fight back the hurt that her words incited. "I know Liss, but you can't come this time. It's too dangerous. And you have a future here to protect."

Lissa's angry mask broke and was replaced with dejection. "I can't have a life without you. You're the only family have. Please Rose. Don't you love me?" It was a repeat of the conversation we had the day I quit school to go after Dimitri, and it hurt just as bad this time as it did before.

My heart was breaking over Lissa and I knew there was only one thing I could do. A clean break.

I gave her a cold look and shook my head. "Liss. You. Can't. Go." And then I got into the car, closed the door and cried as Abe drove away and Lissa chased after us as far as she could.

I watched in the rear-view mirror as Lissa, once she could run no further, fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face, and Dimitri scooped her up and carried her back into court.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

Abe and I drove for five hours before he pulled off the freeway and turned into a shopping center. "Wait here."

I shrugged indifferently and allowed myself to sink into Lissa's head for a moment.

Lissa was back in her suite at Court, her tears finally subsiding. Dimitri, Christian, Adrian and Eddie were all sitting with her.

She turned to Christian, and wiped at her tear-stained face. "I can't believe she left us. How does she plan to find Queen Tatiana's killer without help?"

Eddie spoke up. "I know I'll probably get some dirty looks for this, but are we sure that Rose didn't kill the Queen?" Ouch. It was a testament to how badly I had damaged my relationship with Eddie that he had any doubt in me.

Adrian and Dimitri both hopped up from their seats at the same time. "Of course she didn't!" They exclaimed, and then realizing that they had spoken the same thing at the same time glanced awkwardly at one another.

Lissa shot Eddie a look that needed no explanation and Eddie slunk down slightly in his seat. "How can you even say that? You know Rose. She may be hotheaded, prone to act without thinking, but she would never kill an innocent Moroi."

"Besides, I was with her. I know she didn't kill my Aunt." Adrian added. A pained look, one that usually marked when the spirit-induced darkness was taking hold, flittered across his face. He looked out Lissa's window, and sighed. "Oh, Rose. What have you gotten yourself into?" I scoffed. It wasn't like I had purposely gone and gotten myself framed for the Queen's murder. Sometimes shit just happens.

Eddie, probably in an attempt to redeem him self, spoke again. "Well, if the queen's real killer is out there somewhere Rose, of all people, would be able to find him."

Christian's eyebrows furrowed in concern, and when he spoke, his words were directed at Lissa. "Maybe it's better this way."

Four sets of eyes glared back at him and he threw his arms up in surrender. "I'm just saying. I mean Rose has a pretty slim chance of landing a good Guardian job, the Queen said it herself, Rose was looking at a life of paperwork. And everyone knows that Rose wouldn't be happy doing that. She's a fighter, she lives for it. Maybe this way, she can start her life over."

"You sound like you don't believe Rose is going to be able to find the real murderer." Lissa's emotions betrayed how she felt through the bond, even if her face was blank. She was angry.

"I don't know Liss. I hope that she can, but she didn't have any leads, and no idea where to begin. Maybe you need to let Rose go, move on with your life."

Lissa stood up, the anger radiating off of her in waves, and she stormed into Christian's face. "Rose is part of my life! And she will succeed. If I have to travel the world to find her and help her, I will get Rose back!" She shouted. She took a couple of deep breaths to calm her self and sat back down. "I just wish I knew where she was going, so that I could go to her and help her."

Adrian looked away from the window and over at Lissa. "I have a confession to make." He started, but unfortunately I was ripped out of Lissa's head by the return of Abe.

I could only hope that Adrian wasn't about to blow everything for Lissa and tell her what he knew.

Abe held a shopping bag in his hands, and I couldn't help the uneasy feeling I got at the sight of said bags.

"What did you get old man?" I asked, trying to pretend like I didn't care.

Abe got into the car and tossed the bag into my lap without saying anything.

I opened the bag and peered inside, and was immediately outraged. "Hair dye Abe? Really? I'm not dying my hair." I told him obstinately, folding my arms over my chest.

Abe glanced over at me with a look that said that the issue wasn't up for debate. Of course, if Abe knew anything about me, he would know that arguing things I shouldn't is kind of a hobby of mine.

"Nope. Not going to happen. I am especially not dying my hair," I glanced in the bag again to get a better look at the name of the dye, "baby doll blonde." I finished with a sneer.

"Rose, you are the most wanted person in the Moroi world right now. You are going to have to alter your appearance if you plan to remain undetected for any amount of time." Abe smiled conspiratorially. "Besides, the blonde is for me. I picked out a far more appropriate shade for you."

I looked at him in confusion. "Why would you need to dye your hair? Are you subconscious about going gray Abe?" I joked, half-heartedly.

Abe let out an exasperated sight. "No Rosemarie. Seeing as I have probably already been implicated in your escape, it would behoove me to change my appearance as well. I would really hate to be the reason you get caught again."

I nodded in agreement, seeing as I would definitely not be pleased if it was Abe's fault I was arrested again, and leaned my head back in the seat.

It wasn't until several minutes later that the last half of Abe's earlier comment about the hair dye dawned on me, and I sat back up and stared at him.

"Yes?" He asked, without looking over at me.

"What did you mean when you said 'I chose a far more appropriate shade for you?'"

Abe glanced sideways at me, a wicked grin on his lips, but said nothing.

I snatched the plastic bag up off the floor where I had placed it and looked inside again. After taking out the top two boxes of blonde dye, I finally found the boxes meant for me.

I blanched when I saw them, and my jaw dropped. I snapped my head up to stare in shock at Abe and then back down into the bag. "Fire-cracker red Abe?" I shook my head in disgust. "I'd rather go with the blonde."

Abe laughed. "No, no. Blonde would look all wrong on you. The red will be much lovelier, you'll look just like Janine." I cringed when he said my mother's name. Partly because looking like her was the last thing I wanted, and partly because when he said her name it sounded all _dirty_, and I so did not want to think about my parents being "together."

I decided to ignore the mom reference, though, probably a subconscious self-defense mechanism to keep myself from hurling. "But why on earth would you ever pick a shade with a name like fire-cracker?"

"I thought it was funny, seeing as you have a reputation for being a fire-cracker."

I rolled my eyes and dropped the conversation, knowing that resistance was futile. If I tried to fight him on this, it would probably only make things worse and I'd end up with green hair or something.

After another hour of driving, Abe decided it was time to rest, so he pulled off the freeway again and into a dingy roach motel that looked like it came straight out of that movie Deliverance.

We got out of the car, and Abe turned to me. "Wait here while I get us a room." He told me and so I leaned against the passenger side and waited.

I wasn't paying attention and so the sound of a voice behind me made me jump. "Whoa nice car."

I turned to face a young man, maybe around Adrian's age, with long blonde hair and blue eyes. Instantly, I was reminded of a surfer from California.

I opened my mouth to tell him to beat it, but Abe had come out and was walking over to us, an idea obvious on his face.

"Do you like it?" He asked conversationally.

"Absolutely. All I have is that crappy Honda over there. I would kill for a car like this."

Abe opened the driver's side door and leaned in. After scrounging around in the glove box for a moment he popped back out and stared at the kid. "How would you like to trade?" He asked, and I laughed, thinking he was kidding with this poor guy.

Abe shot me a look that all but screamed for me to keep my mouth shut, and I scowled in return.

"Seriously?" The kid was skeptical, which when dealing with Abe was a good thing to be.

Abe shrugged. "Absolutely."

The kid's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What's the catch?"

"I will hand you over this title, and you can drive away with this car. The only catch is that you register it immediately in your name, and you don't tell a soul that you met my friend and I here, and you don't tell anyone you gave us your car."

"You're not, like, in trouble are you?" He asked. "I won't be aiding criminals will I?"

Abe laughed innocently. "No, not criminals. My friend just got out of a bad relationship with her husband, and he's stalking her. So I'm hiding her out, until the divorce is legal. It would just be easier for everyone involved if we kept this transaction to ourselves."

I was fairly certain that the kid saw right through Abe's half-assed excuse, but pretty cars, I've noticed, can go a long way when it comes to boys, so I wasn't surprised when he shrugged and took the offer.

After the kid had driven away in Abe's car, I turned to Abe. "What was that about?" I asked.

"Just a precaution really. Since the car is registered to me, I was worried that they may be able to track me down with it. With this car," he waved his hand towards the white Honda that we had just acquired, "we will be less likely to be noticed."

It was actually pretty clever, so I couldn't really argue with his logic.

Abe grinned at me, knowing that I wasn't going to put up a fight and motioned for me to follow him to our room.

The motel was one of those motor lodge things, just one long strip of about eight rooms, all the doors painted emerald green, while the rest of building was an offensively bright yellow.

They had given us room six, and as we stopped in front of the door, I couldn't help but hold my breath, terrified of whatever disgusting things awaited us inside. Abe swiped the card, and the door clicked then swung open revealing, much to my surprise, a moderately clean room, with two full size beds and a dresser with a TV.

A door to the right was open, revealing the small bathroom, and that was where Abe led me to first.

He pointed to the toilet. "Sit down."

I did as I was told and then sat quietly as Abe bleached my hair with hydrogen peroxide and then applied the dye.

I kept my eyes closed the whole time, and didn't open them until nearly an hour later, after the dye had set and then Abe had washed it out.

As I looked at my new self in the mirror, I couldn't help but grimace. The red wasn't quite what I expected. It certainly didn't remind me of a firecracker; then again that was probably a good thing. It looked more natural than that, though it still contrasted oddly with the rest of my dark features.

Despite the fact that I wasn't thrilled about my new 'do, even though I once said I wouldn't have minded my mom's red hair, I had to sigh in relief when I realized that I still didn't look like Janine.

My only other consolation was that Abe looked just as ridiculous as me with blonde hair. After I had laughed at him for twenty minutes, though, he had gotten irritated and left me alone with nothing to do but sit and watch the TV. I guess I could have checked in on Lissa, but my heart had had enough pain for today, and I wasn't really in the mood.

He came back after a couple of hours in a significantly better mood, laden with eight bags from Wal-Mart full of clothes for the two of us and some Chinese food.

I ran at Abe, snatching the bag of Chinese food from him and sifting through it anxiously. After sitting in jail and eating nothing but stale bread and water (okay the food was better than that but not by much) and escaping jail to go on the run, I was starving.

I ate an entire take-out box of broccoli beef to myself before drifting off to sleep in the brand new plaid cotton pajama bottoms and black tank top that Abe had bought for me.

When I woke up the next morning, I noticed that Abe was already awake, sitting in his bed and reading a paperback Western, something that reminded me painfully of Dimitri.

When I sat up, he looked over at me. "So Rose, what was it that Queen Tatiana left you to do?" He asked, getting right to business.

I yawned before answering. "I need to find Lissa's illegitimate brother or sister so that she can take her place on the Council." I told him and his only response was to raise his eyebrow questioningly.

Not really wanting to go into full details, I rolled out of the bed (which was surprisingly comfortable) and pulled Tatiana's note out of my jeans pocket.

I handed it over to Abe, and watched as he read it, surprise flickering across his face. After he finished, he folded the note and handed it back to me. "Hmmm… Interesting. Eric Dragomir had an illicit affair. Surprising, though not terribly so." He mused to himself, before focusing on me. "Any idea, where to begin your search?"

"Las Vegas, though first I think I need to talk to someone who might have information I need to narrow it down." I answered him.

Abe raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And who would that be?"

I smiled devilishly at Abe. "Sydney Sage." I answered.

Abe's returning smile told me all I needed to know. He knew exactly where she was, and he would be able to get her to talk. "Then New Orleans it is." He replied.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

Abe and I waited until nightfall to begin our journey to New Orleans. I wouldn't have minded going during the day, but Abe was a Moroi, and he had probably absorbed pretty much all the sun he could handle for a while during my jail break.

It would take us about nineteen hours to drive from Pennsylvania to New Orleans, and since most of that driving would have to be at night, Abe estimated that we would arrive there in about two days.

Flying would have been easier, but being a fugitive left me unable to board a regular flight, and Abe said that he didn't trust any of his contacts with private jets to not turn us in, which probably said a lot about the kind of people Abe dealt with.

"Besides," Abe had told me, "the drive will give us time to instate a father-daughter relationship."

In which I had responded, probably unkindly considering that he had helped me out a lot over the last couple of months, that I had made it just fine for the last eighteen years without a father and didn't really see the point in starting a relationship now.

All that remark had gotten me was a glare from Abe that brought to mind the phrase, "If looks could kill." So I decided not to comment any further. Abe may be a Moroi, but since I had met him, I'd kind of gotten the impression that he was the knee-breaking type, and I didn't really want to incite his wrath.

At seven o'clock (p.m), we checked out of the motel and began the first leg of our journey; a ten-hour drive that Abe estimated would land us in Knoxville, Tennessee at around five a.m. From there we would drive the remaining nine hours into New Orleans the next night.

To say that traveling with Abe was kind of boring would be an understatement. He liked to listen to classical music, which of course, I could not stand.

As if that was not enough of a reason for me to pray that this trip would be over soon, Abe was a firm believer in not stopping often to go to the bathroom. I had learned that one the hard way when, about four hours in, I had desperately told him I needed to stop to pee, and he had uncaringly responded with, "No unscheduled stops. Hold it until we stop in Roanoke," in which he had meant Roanoke, West Virginia, which was about another two hours out.

"I have to pee now!"

"Then crawl in the back and pee in a cup." He shrugged.

I did just that, by the way, just to spite him. Although, I'm not sure he even cared.

It was while I was sprawled out in the back seat, taking a catnap, (and after depositing my urine filled cup in a trash can at our stop in Roanoke) that I was pulled into Lissa's head.

She was sitting in the courtroom once more, facing all eleven of the royal families. In the seat next to her, Adrian sat, looking as relaxed as though he faced the Royal Court all the time. Which judging by what an ass hole his father was, he might as well have faced them everyday.

Lissa however, was not feeling in any way relaxed. She was exhausted, hurt and terrified of why they had summoned her this time.

Once again Lord Nathan Ivashkov stood up and looked down from the dais to glare evilly at Lissa and Adrian.

"Vasilisa Dragomir, what do you know about the escape and or whereabouts of the fugitive known as Rosemarie Hathaway?" He asked her, his voice ringing with authority.

Lissa shrugged. "I don't know where Rose went. Only that she left without taking me with her." I flinched at the bitter resentment in her voice when she said the last part.

Lord Ivashkov nodded and turned to look down at his son. "And you Adrian? What do you know?"

Adrian grinned lightheartedly. "All I know is what I was told today, which is that the Rose-bird flew the coup. I'm a little bitter she didn't take me with her, too." He said pulling a face.

Upon further probing into Lissa's senses, I realized that I could detect the distinct trace of vodka and cigarette smoke emanating from Adrian.

Usually, that would have been cause for argument between the two of us, but considering what I had put him through the last few days, I decided that his lapse was justifiable.

Once again, Lord Ivashkov nodded. "Do either of you have any insight as to why Miss Hathaway would feel that it was a good idea to break out of her cell, or how she accomplished to do so, seemingly without help?"

Adrian's hand shot up, the look of antagonistic joy on his face illustrating that he wasn't taking this seriously at all, and was truly just enjoying screwing with his father. "Our Rose is resourceful." He answered.

Lord Ivashkov's answering scowl would have been enough to make me cower, but it seemed to have the opposite effect on Adrian, he just beamed back. "That's enough Adrian. If you have nothing useful to say, then please don't say anything at all."

Lissa looked back at Dimitri, and then faced Lord Ivashkov again. "I can't answer that, sir. All I can tell you is what I have been told ever since I was a child. Only the guilty flee." There was frostiness in Lissa's voice that left me cold, as I realized that she was implying that I was guilty, and immediately I tried to pull out of her head.

Apparently Lissa wasn't finished with me yet, though, because no matter how hard I struggled to get out, she wasn't letting go.

Lord Ivashkov's eyebrows shot up. "Are you saying that you believe she is guilty?" He asked in surprise.

Lissa merely shrugged. "I have no other explanation as to why she would leave."

"And you Adrian? Do you believe she is guilty of treason?" He asked, turning his watery eyes back to Adrian.

Adrian waved a hand dismissively. "She is definitely guilty of treason."

Nathan's shock at Adrian's words must have mirrored my own.

After observing Lissa and Adrian for a few more moments Nathan waved his hand at them. "Very well, I believe you." He turned to the eleven council members. "We vote now. Based on the testimony given today, are Vasilisa Dragomir and Adrian Ivashkov guilty of aiding the dangerous criminal, Rosemarie Hathaway, in her escape. If you believe so, raise your hand now." Not one hand rose, so Nathan turned back to Lissa and Adrian.

"You have been reprieved, carry on with your days." He told them dismissively.

Lissa stood and began to walk away, but stopped dead in her tracks when Adrian's voice rang out. "Da- I mean Lord Ivashkov," he began with a simpering bow. "I have a request to make of the Council."

Nathan rolled his eyes. "Yes, Adrian, go ahead."

"I've decided I want to do something with my life. I would like to go to California to check out schools there, and as such, I will need a Guardian. I don't have any specific time span for my trip, but I believe that the Guardian I want will be more than willing to report back to you with status updates on my school finding progress."

Nathan was unable to wipe the surprise from his face quickly enough. I couldn't keep the smile off my face at the sight of Nathan's astonishment. It was honestly good to see Adrian get the better of his father. "Adrian, you want to go back to school?"

"Oh yes. Definitely. I'm twenty-one years old, it's time to make something of myself." He answered easily.

Nathan still looked skeptical. "And what is it that you think you would like study? Art?" He scoffed, and immediately I felt enraged. How dare he put down his son's aspirations!

But even I was floored by his response. "Art is for fools." He said, completely straight-faced. "I think I'm more interested in law," he paused to let that sink in and then really drove it home. "Or politics."

Nathan actually smiled approvingly; the first time I have ever seen him look at his son that way. "Alright Adrian, I think that can be arranged. Do you have a Guardian in mind?" He asked.

Adrian looked over to where the Guardian's were standing against the wall and for the first time I noticed Eddie standing next to Dimitri. "Guardian Castile." He said gravely.

Nathan glanced over at Eddie. "Guardian Castile, would you be willing to travel with my son for an indefinite period of time while he decides which school he wants to attend."

Eddie smiled casually. "It would be my honor, Lord Ivashkov."

Nathan seemed genuinely pleased. "Then it's settled. When do you plan on leaving?"

"After Aunt Tatiana's funeral."

"Very well. I would like yourself and Guardian Castile to come to our house after we leave here in order to finalize details."

Adrian and Eddie both nodded their agreements and I silently cursed Adrian for involving Eddie in this. I was also mildly shocked that Eddie was going along in the first place, especially considering his earlier comments.

But the conspiratorial glance that he exchanged with Adrian as they exited told me that Adrian's announcement was not news to him.

Lissa moved to follow them, and Dimitri came up behind her, his scent intoxicating me as I experienced it through Lissa's mind.

If we thought that the council was finished questioning people about me, we were wrong. "Guardian Belikov," Nathan's voice rang out, all business once again. "As Rose's previous mentor, the Council and I believe that you may have some insight as to where she would go. Do you have anything you would like to share with us?"

At his name, Dimitri stiffened where he stood. Slowly, he turned to face the Council, his face once again Guardian blank. "I was Rose's mentor." He stated his words acting as a confirmation to what Nathan had just stated. "But I only knew her a few months. I have no idea where she would have gone, _because I barely knew her._"

It was at this point that Lissa chose to let me escape her head.

If Lissa's words had been a slap, Dimitri's words were a knife to the heart. And for the rest of the drive to Knoxville I had to fight the tears that threatened to overcome me. Because the truth of the matter was, Dimitri and I had been through hell together. He had been my friend, my first love, my first everything, and to hear him say those words just confirmed something that I had been trying to fight ever since Dimitri had become dhampir again.

He didn't love me. And now I was beginning to realize that maybe he never did.


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

The sun made its first appearance for the day as Abe and I pulled up to a pleasant bed and breakfast type inn in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Despite the fact that I had napped through most of the drive, I still felt exhausted by the time the two of us made our way up to our room. In fact, I barely stopped to register the two queen beds, both covered with frilly white quilts, or the lovely cherry wood furniture, before hopping up onto the bed, and passing out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I shouldn't have been so tired, but in light of the verbal bitch slaps that I had received from Lissa, Adrian, and Dimitri, the three people who's opinions mattered most to me, I was emotionally exhausted, and ready to shut myself off to the world.

Of course, I should have known better than to believe that I would be able to sleep through the night peacefully and without interruption, because as soon as I began to drift off into that lovely black abyss that marked a dreamless slip, I was pulled into another one of Adrian's spirit-charmed dreams.

I guess, given what he had said earlier to his father about California, the location that he chose for this dream should have been obvious. But still, I found myself slightly in awe as I looked around at the sandy beach I was on, the warm California sun shining brightly over head.

I was glad to see that he had chosen to keep me somewhat decent today in a cute blue terrycloth hooded wrap that reached mid-thigh, because considering that we were standing on a beach, he could have dressed me up a lot more provocatively.

"Little dhampir?" Adrian sounded confused, and I whipped my head around wildly looking for him. I found him standing about thirty feet away, leaned up against a lifeguard post.

He looked tired, which didn't make me feel any better about what I had put him through lately, and helped me to not be so angry with him about telling the Council he thought I was guilty of treason, and involving Eddie in our crazy scheme (which I probably shouldn't have been mad about in the first place seeing as I had just recently involved Eddie with another one of my crazy schemes).

Other than looking tired, though, I couldn't help but note how attractive he was. Especially with his hair all messy, and the dark sunglasses he donned.

He was shirtless, wearing only a pair of green swim trucks, the color of which probably would have done justice to his eyes. Once again, I was reminded that, although he was Moroi, he was still quite muscular.

I strolled over to him, enjoying the feel of the sun on my back. "Adrian?" I asked, and at the sound of my voice he straightened himself up, stepped away from the lifeguard stand and pulled the sunglasses down to the end of his nose to peer at me from over the top of them.

As I came to a stop in front of him, he observed me quizzically for a moment and then his face broke into a smile and he wrapped his arms around me. "Rose, it is you." He stated, as though he wasn't sure it was me.

I hugged him back, just taking comfort in his presence. "Of course its me. Who else would you have thought it was?"

Adrian shrugged. "You just looked different with the red hair that's all."

To be honest, I had kind of forgotten that my hair was dyed. I pulled away from him and ran a hand through my hair. "Do you like it?" I asked.

Adrian's hand moved to my hair, and he gently twisted a strand between his fingers. "It's different," he started, his gaze never moving from that strand. "But, I like it." Adrian dropped his hand from my hair and the strand fell limply into my face. "Then again, you could probably die your hair neon orange and I would still like it." Once again, Adrian smiled and I couldn't resist the urge to lean in and kiss him softly on the lips.

Adrian groaned and backed away slightly. "Oh Rose, how I miss you." He stated dreamily. "Life at Court is so boring without you. I can't wait to escape."

I narrowed my eyes in response. "So I heard. California with Eddie, huh?" Jokingly, I put a hand to my forehead and tipped my head back. "And here I thought the two of us were going to run away together. Silly me."

I moved to drop my hand from my forehead, and Adrian's hand clasped around my wrist, pulling me closer to him.

His other hand moved up to my forehead, and he brushed a strand of hair from my face, a surprisingly romantic gesture for Adrian. "That was just a story so that the Council doesn't think I'm going off to find you. The last thing we need is for them to suspect something and decide to send people to follow me."

"Is that why you decided to tell them you thought I was guilty of treason?" I asked, unable to keep the betrayal from my voice.

Adrian's response was to laugh jovially. "Rose, you are guilty of treason. Treason to my heart, treason to my soul!" He exclaimed, spinning him self in an open-armed circle, and I found myself wondering if maybe Adrian's sanity was taking a back seat at the moment.

When he stopped again to face me, he still wore his playful grin. "Not to mention that it was technically treason when you broke into Tarasov and busted out Victor Dashkov."

I cocked my head to the side in agreement and the frowned at him. "So, you don't really think that I killed the Queen though, right?" I bit my lip as I waited for his response.

"Of course not, Rose."

"But Lissa does?" I asked sadly.

Adrian grimaced and shook his head slightly. "I don't know what's going on with Lissa. She's angry and hurt, and I think she wants you to feel the same way." He began, but at the dejected look on my face, he hurriedly added more. "If it makes you feel better, I don't think that Lissa really believes you killed the Queen."

"Thanks Adrian, it does make me feel better that you say that." I told him, and I honestly meant it.

"So I'm leaving tomorrow after Tatiana's funeral. Have you made it anywhere, or should I really go off to California?" Once again, Adrian's smile returned to his face.

"Tomorrow we should be arriving in New Orleans. Abe said that we would be staying at the Bourbon Street Inn in the French Quarter. Meet me there?" For some reason, maybe because of the number Dimitri just did on my heart, I was worried that Adrian wouldn't come.

"Bourbon Street Inn, got it." Adrian looked behind him and rolled his eyes. "I gotta go, I think Lissa is trying to break the door to my room down. Ever since you left, she's been coming over everyday in an attempt to learn how to dream walk. She's like really desperate to talk to you." He said, bending down to kiss me once more.

I held him against me for a moment before backing away from him. "Let's just hope that she can't figure out how to do it before she cools off." I told him with a pitiful smile.

Adrian stuck his hand on the top of my head and mussed my hair. "Sometimes, you are too much little dhampir." He told me, right before he melted away and I drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

The next day I woke up, more excited than I'd felt since getting arrested. I felt like I was on the right track going to Sydney for information. I was also excited, despite myself, about the fact that Adrian would be arriving soon.

I couldn't even get worked up about Abe's music, and since I had the good sense to use the restroom four times before we left, we made it to our rest stop with little incident.

We only drove for four hours before Abe pulled over in Birmingham, Alabama. He chose to stop in a huge shopping center, complete with a Saks on Fifth Avenue. The center was apparently called the Vulcan Center, named after some Greek or Roman God.

After going through a drive-thru and picking up some extremely greasy burgers, Abe drove to the far end of the Center and parked in front of a fifty-foot statue of a man, whom I assumed to be _the _Vulcan, and got out of the car.

"Wait here." He told me through the window.

Seeing as it was dark, and Birmingham was a big city, which meant that it was a perfect dwelling for Strigoi, I had a serious problem allowing Abe, a Moroi, to wander around alone.

So it was that whole 'they come first mentality' that caused me to throw open the door and hop out of the car after Abe. "Like hell I will!" I exclaimed stubbornly. "You may be a bad ass, old man, but I just can't see you fighting off a group of Strigoi."

Abe spun around to face me, his features tight and creases on his forehead. "Trust me, Rose. You do not want to follow me." He spat at me from between clenched teeth.

"What are you doing that is so secretive Abe?" I prodded, suddenly desperate to know what he was up to.

Abe sighed and began to tap his foot impatiently. "I have not had blood in far too long, Rose. Therefore, I am going to step into this building and get myself some."

"Okay, well I'll come with you."

"Rose-," he started, but I cut him off.

"Nope. Blame the Academy's nazi regime for ingraining it in my head, but as a dhampir, who was trained to be a guardian, I cannot in good conscious allow you to wander around at night without protection."

Abe rolled his eyes and turned to walk over to the base of the statue, where there was a door. "Suit yourself, Rose. But I guarantee you are going to regret this decision."

He turned back to the door, pulled it open and stepped through it. I followed, not sure what I was in store for.

As soon as I stepped in though, I sighed in relief. The inside, or what I could see of it, was a staircase that led down into what I assumed was some sort of basement.

I followed Abe down that staircase, feeling relieved that I hadn't stumbled across some sort of Moroi feeding bank.

My relief was short lived, however, as the staircase gave way to the floor below.

It was short lived because I had wandered into something far worse than a Moroi feeding bank.

All around me there were pretty dhampir women wearing extremely revealing dresses, and all of their necks were littered with bite marks.

Yep, much worse than what I thought. Abe had brought me to a blood-whore community.

_**Just a quick Author's Note:**_

_**I would like to thank all of you who have elected to follow my story. As it is, I am new to fanfiction; I happened upon it while searching for my very own vampire academy fix and have become some what obsessed with it. However, I have a small confession to make that I hope will not cause you all to hate me. Writing my version of Vampire Academy had proved an excellent distraction from me writing in my own book series, of which PublishAmerica has recently released the first book, and if you are so inclined I would appreciate it if you would check it out. It is called Impure: A Drusilla Dracule Novel. You can find it by going to **__**.com**__**, and clicking on the online bookstore tab. If you scroll down to the search engine and type in Impure, my book will pop up.**_

_**A forewarning should you elect to get the book, the editing was not great, which leaves me slightly disappointed, (Oh, what I wouldn't have given for a beta reader when I was submitting it) but the storyline is still intriguing.**_

_**Other than that, thank-you for enjoying my version of this awesome story, and I will continue to post chapters as I can.**_


	7. Chapter 7

I am just so pleased with the responses I have gotten to this story! Thank you all so much!

CHAPTER SEVEN

To say that I was angry with Abe would be an understatement. Try livid beyond all reason. As I looked around at all the dhampir women who were shamelessly flaunting themselves I couldn't refrain from shooting Abe a disgusted look.

"I told you that you didn't want to come with me." He said.

Despite the fact that I myself knew just how addicting a vampire bite could be, I couldn't help but look down at the women in this place.

It wasn't just because allowing a Moroi to drink from you was considered immoral or that allowing them to drink from you during sex was considered taboo. No, my dislike for these types of places stemmed from something far more instinctual than that.

Dhampirs couldn't have children with other dhampirs; it was some type of genetic defect that left us sort of like mules.

Dhampirs could have children with Moroi, resulting with more dhampirs. In an attempt to keep our race alive we made a sort of unspoken deal with the Moroi community that we would protect them as, seeing as our unique mix of Moroi blood and human blood made us perfect for fighting strigoi. So, we protected the Moroi from Strigoi, and they agreed to have children with us.

The women in blood-whore communities didn't become guardians. They just had sex with Moroi men and allowed them to drink from them during the act. For all intents and purposes, they were traitors against their own kind.

I had recently learned that not all of these communities were strictly bad. When I had gone to Siberia to find Dimitri, I had ended up staying with his family for a while, and had gotten a better look into what they were all about.

Not all the women there had been blood whores. In fact, most of them were just normal women who decided that it was more fitting for them to stay behind and raise their own children. In light of recent life events that had take place at the time, I could kind of get their point to an extent.

But even in Siberia, there were still women who made me cringe. Blood-whores.

I scanned the room for any sign of danger, and then turned my angry gaze to Abe. "You're right, I should have stayed back at the car. In fact, I'm going to go outside while you do this."

I turned back towards the staircase, but Abe grabbed my arm and spun me back around to face him. "Rose," he started, and his face looked genuinely sorry so I decided I would hear him out. "We are out of options. I usually frown upon these sorts of places, but seeing the predicament I am in, I really have no other choice. And I am not going to do anything immoral. I'm just going to drink from one of them as I would any other feeder."

I understood what he was getting at. Seeing as we were fugitives, we couldn't very well show up to a Moroi hang out and request feeders, so a blood-whore community really was the only option that we had. Just because I understood, though, didn't mean that I had to like it.

"I'm just going to wait upstairs. This place is making me sick." I responded.

Abe arched an eyebrow at me. "You look just like your mother when you stare at me like that." He told me with a small smile.

I rolled my eyes and ignored the Janine reference. "Be quick, old man. I want to get out of here."

Abe nodded in understanding and then turned to scan the room for his poor, although seeing as she was probably begging for it I couldn't really call her poor, victim.

I made my way up the stairs to the top floor where the door was, and waited. True to his promise, Abe was quick and fifteen minutes later we were back in the car, finishing the last leg of our journey.

Things were silent between us for a while until Abe finally cleared his throat. "Rosemarie, I hope that you will not think ill of me. Dire circumstances call for dire measures."

I sighed and looked over at him. "I understand the necessity, Abe. I just wish you had forewarned me."

I shuddered, thinking of that place. But, if I was completely honest with myself, I was more upset with my own reaction to seeing those women. Nostalgia, and fear. Nostalgia because, as I said, I myself knew the draw of a vampire bite. It was better than any high I had ever experienced.

Fear, because it brought back unwanted memories. Memories of when I had found Dimitri as Strigoi in Russia, and he had basically taken me hostage and used me as his own personal blood-whore.

Part of me couldn't help but wonder if that was why he didn't love me anymore. Because, he had seen me at my weakest. Seen me willingly give my blood to him.

I shook that thought away. I would not allow myself to believe that Dimitri thought of me as a blood-whore.

I was suddenly alerted through the bond of Lissa doing something she felt was sneaky, and so I allowed myself to slip into her head.

Lissa was sitting in Adrian's parent's living room, looking at Nathan Ivashkov.

Much to my surprise, because in the time I had known Nathan I had never seen him like this, he looked pleasant. "What brings you here Princess?" He asked.

Lissa folded her hands in her lap and looked up at Lord Ivashkov. "I have a request to make." She said politely.

"Oh? What can I do for you?"

"I would like to take a vacation, away from court. Away from everything. I want to clear my head before I start Lehigh in the fall. And I would like to bring Christian Ozera with me."

"Hmm…and where would you go?" I was a little surprised that Nathan didn't just outright tell her no. As the last Dragomir, she was considered special, and a lot of extra precautions were taken when it came to her.

Lissa looked calm and collected as she answered. "To Seattle. I want to take him to where Rose and I had lived when we ran away from the Academy." She may have been able to fool Nathan with her cool exterior, but she couldn't fool me. The thundering of her heart in her chest gave away the fact that she was up to something sneaky.

"How long will you be gone?" He asked.

"Oh, a couple of months. I will be back in time to start school in the fall."

Nathan observed Lissa carefully for a moment, and as his eyes locked on hers, I felt her slight use of compulsion.

Finally, Nathan leaned back. "Very well. If I allow this, there will be some guidelines. Of course you probably already knew that. The first of which, Guardian Belikov must accompany you."

Lissa nodded. "Of course, I expected that."

"Good. The next is that, you will need another Guardian. While Belikov maybe able to protect you by himself, he would not be able to protect yourself and the Ozera boy simultaneously. Tomorrow night we will have a meeting to-," he started, but Lissa cut him off.

"Guardian Tanner has agreed to be Christian's guardian."

Nathan looked surprised. "Guardian Tanner?" His hand moved to his chin as he thought this over. "Very well, I will allow it. When do you want to leave?"

"Tomorrow."

"The same day as Adrian? Well, that is a lot of arrangements that need to be made in a short amount of time." If Nathan thought any of this was suspicious, he wasn't letting on. Me, however, I thought that this was very suspicious.

"Arrangements, sir? I have money to pay for the tickets and the rooms. No further arrangements need to be made." She stated, and once again I felt the pull of compulsion burn through her.

Nathan wasn't paying her much attention, so the compulsion didn't stick. "Of course Princess. I was merely referring to your traveling party. Besides the Guardians, you will need to take with you a feeder."

I had seen enough to know that something odd was going on with Lissa, so I pulled myself out of her head.

"Liss, what are you up to?" I whispered to myself.

Abe looked over at me. "What was that?"

I didn't know that he had heard me, so I was surprised by his question. "Oh nothing. I was just visiting Lissa, and she seems to be up to something." I answered.

Abe smiled devilishly. "Our Vasilisa can go to extremes when she wants something." He told me nonsensically and I rolled my eyes.

"Lissa, call her Lissa. She hates being called Vasilisa."

We drove on for the next few hours in silence, and it was just before sunrise when Lissa pulled me back into her head.

She was sitting with Christian, Dimitri, and Mikhail at a little Court diner, sipping daintily on a cappuccino.

She set the glass down and stared at what was to be her traveling party. "The arrangements have been made. We leave tomorrow."

"What do we do when we get to the airport?" Christian asked.

I really wished that Lissa was not being so effective with keeping her true motives from the bond, because I would have really loved to have known what the hell they were talking about.

She looked up at Christian, and as her eyes locked on his icy blue ones, I felt her pulse quicken. "We wait, Christian. We wait and see."

I was pushed back out of her head at that moment by the sound of Abe's voice.

"Rose, are you okay?" He asked, waving a hand in front of my face.

"What? Yeah? I was just in Lissa's head again." I told him dazedly.

"Well focus. We're here." He said with a triumphant smile.

I blinked and looked out the window, and then back at Abe. His smile was still plastered across his face as he stated grandly, "Welcome to New Orleans."


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

New Orleans proper was not what I had expected. In fact, there was nothing too interesting about it. It basically reminded of every other big city I had ever been to.

As I looked out the window, I couldn't help but think that I had expected more fanfare, more of that 'other' element that I had always associated with New Orleans. I had expected to come here and find something inspiring, but as I passed the airport, it became increasingly obvious that the only thing exciting about New Orleans was the huge Super-Dome stadium.

That was my first impression, however, and I quickly learned that first impressions are not to be trusted.

After driving for another twenty minutes I saw what I had been waiting for. The French Quarter was exactly what I had been expecting.

The streets were crowded, and tourists were everywhere. Horses pulled carriages around the Quarter. Fortune tellers lined one side of the streets, each one claiming that they were the best, while on the other side, musicians collecting tip money in dark fedoras played jazz out off shiny brass instruments.

There was an aura emanating from the very heart of the Quarter itself, one rich with a history and culture that I had never once in my eighteen years experienced.

I immediately fell in love with it, and I had to suppress the tears that formed as I thought of how much fun Lissa would have had together, if we had been here visiting under other circumstances.

As it was, I was starting to believe that mine and Lissa's relationship would never be the same, and that by leaving her behind this time, I had accomplished what my previous departure had not. When I left to go after Dimitri I had fractured our friendship. This time I had ripped it apart.

I sighed, knowing nothing could be done for it now, and that only time would tell if things could be set right between us.

Abe noticed my sigh and looked over at me, concern etching itself on his features. "Is everything alright Rose? I know that this place doesn't seem like much now, but just wait until nightfall. The whole Quarter comes alive after dark."

I gawked in disbelief. I was already impressed with this place. It blew my mind to think that it could transform into anything more fantastical at night.

I didn't mention this to Abe, though, because the city had not been what had caused me to sigh. "It's not that. I was just thinking of Lissa, and the fact that I have basically ruined our friendship. Lissa would love this place." I told him, waving my hand out the window and gesturing to the city around me.

Abe nodded in agreement. "Lissa would love this place. Its full of life and spirit, just like her."

In all honestly, I think that was why I was falling in love with this city already too. It reminded me of Lissa, bustling with life and happiness and all the things that made Lissa, well Lissa.

I was just relishing that thought, finding comfort in it, when Abe spoke again. "Maybe you can bring her here sometime." Just like that, any joy I was beginning to feel was deflated.

I shook my head slowly. "Yeah, probably not. Even if I manage to find Tatiana's killer and be acquitted for the murder, I'm fairly certain that Lissa is never going to speak to me again."

Abe turned to regard me in astonishment for a moment. "Rosemarie, I think you far underestimate Lissa's ability to understand and forgive."

I shot Abe a dirty look and then turned to look out the window. I didn't even bother to respond to his statement because I knew there was no point. I'd known Lissa since kindergarten, I knew better than anyone else how understanding and forgiving Lissa could be. On the other hand, I'd also seen what happened to people who pushed Lissa too far. And I was fairly certain that my actions recently had pushed her too far.

After driving down Bourbon Street for a few minutes, Abe pulled up to the Bourbon Street Inn, and I gasped in shock. It was beautiful, or at least what I could see of it from the street.

Two grand glass doors marked the entrance of the Inn, and all the way up the wall, on either side of the doors, there were numerous balconies that marked all the rooms on this side of the Inn. On several of the balconies, guest stood looking down upon the people walking the streets. Most of them had drinks in their hands, and some of them were even smoking cigarettes while they observed what was going on in the city.

I longed to be one of those people, just casually people watching while sipping on a cocktail. Instead, I thought bitterly, I'm trying to find my best friends brother or sister and looking for a murderer.

Not for the first time, I found myself wising that Dimitri had never caught up to Lissa and I in Seattle. Things had been perfect there, just the two of us. Of course, living in the past wasn't going to help me any in the present, so I quickly shook that thought away.

Abe turned left at the next street, and then pulled behind the Inn into the parking lot.

We parked the car, got out, and then began walking back down the street towards the entrance of the Inn.

I could see the entrance clearly, and I felt excitement rush into me. I was tired and as soon as we checked in, I was going to be able to go to sleep.

I had just a few more steps to go when a man's hand shot out and grabbed me by the arm. "Hey!" I exclaimed, wrenching myself away from the man. "What do you think you're doing?"

Abe who had been walking ahead of me, stopped and turned. "What the hell is going on?" He asked staring at the man with a murdering glare.

The man was homeless, I could tell thanks to the ratty clothes and lack of shoes or hygiene. He had long gray hair that reached down past his shoulders, and an even longer gray beard that shot out at funny angles and hung down to his belly.

The man paid Abe no attention, but pointed one long crooked finger at me. "I know you. I'se seen youse somewhere befo'." He told me in a thick Cajun accent.

I took a step away from the man and shook my head. "Nope," I told him carefully, "You've never met me before. This is my first time to New Orleans."

The man smiled menacingly, revealing no teeth. "I didn't say I'd met ya befo'. I says I knows ya. Theys come through hea with theys flyas, and your face was on em. Youse hair was diffren though." He said.

Once again I shook my head. "Nope, wasn't me." I told him, and thankfully at this point Abe came up and put his arm over my shoulders, leading me away from the man.

The man laughed. "Theys goin ta find ya Rosie!" He yelled after me.

I was fairly certain the man was crazy, and that the name thing was just a coincidence, but that didn't keep an uneasy feeling from rising in my chest.


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

It took Abe and I all of about ten minutes to get checked into the hotel and up to our room.

I was pleased to find that Abe had booked one of the rooms with a balcony that looked down onto Bourbon Street, and for a second I pretended that I was really here on vacation, and not as a fugitive desperately trying to clear her name.

The room was simple, just like any other hotel room I'd ever stayed in; two queen-sized beds, a dresser with a TV sitting on top of it, nothing really remarkable about it.

I jumped up onto one of the beds and scrawled across the striped blue and green comforter, desperate for sleep.

Abe, apparently, had other plans. He turned to me and shook his head slightly. "No sleeping yet, Rose. We have business to attend to first." He told me.

I slipped under the covers and pulled them over my head. "You go do business, I need to sleep." I mumbled.

Half a second later Abe pulled the cover down from my face. "Hey!" I growled. "Don't make me hurt you old man." I told him, to which he responded with a quick laugh.

"Rose you can sleep when we come back. We need to go see Sydney first." He told me.

"Abe," I whined. "We just drove nine hours. I need to sleep. Trust me, it is for everyone's benefit. I'm much more pleasant when I am well rested. We can go see Sydney tonight." I told him.

Abe shot me a disapproving look. "Rosemarie, we are intruding on her life asking her for a favor. The least we can do is do it doing her normal hours. Maybe it will even help change her opinion about us all being evil creatures of the night." Abe smiled at his joke and I rolled my eyed.

From what I had seen of Sydney, we could show up at her house during broad daylight, wearing crosses and selling bibles and she would probably still consider us evil. But I wasn't telling Abe that.

I did see his point, though. We hadn't called Sydney to warn her that we were coming, so it was going to be a shock for her when we showed up at her doorstep. The least we could do was show up during an hour that she would deem appropriate. I dragged myself out of the bed and stood near the door. "Fine, Abe. We'll do it your way. Let's hurry up and get it over with, though. If I don't get some sleep soon, I may very well fall asleep in the middle of talking with her."

Abe laughed. "Something tells me that what she knows will keep you interested enough to stay awake."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I just hope that she can help me. It would be a real bitch if this whole trip was a waste of time."

Once again Abe chuckled at me. Honestly, if he didn't quit doing that, I was going to develop a complex. I mean a girl can only handle so much of someone, especially someone who was supposedly her father, laughing at her before she began to believe there was something wrong with her. "Well then, let's hope that she can help us." He said.

Abe walked out the door of the room and I followed him silently. Once we were back on Bourbon Street, I made my way towards the car but Abe stopped me. "Where are you going?" He asked me in an amused tone.

"Uh, to the car. You know, the motorized hunk of metal that people often use to get places?" I answered sarcastically.

"Rose, we are in New Orleans. People don't drive in New Orleans, they walk. It's part of the experience."

"Uh, no. It is so hot and humid that by the time I make it to the end of the street I am going to be drenched. I'd rather take the car, it has that awesome new age invention. You know, air-conditioning. Have you heard of it?"

Abe rolled his eyes. "This is not up for debate. We are walking. It's only a few blocks."

I narrowed my eyes at Abe and was about to argue back, but then I caught the look on his face. It is one I have seen many times.

On my own face. Most people call it the fuck-with-Rose-Hathaway-and-die look.

So, I was a little taken aback to see one of my trademark facial expressions on Abe's face. Not for the first time since I had met him, I could definitely see that Abe was indeed my father.

A few blocks turned out to be thirty, making Abe a damned liar. Bastard.

By the thirtieth block I was soaked from head to foot, and no it wasn't from sweat. The air in New Orleans was just so full of moisture that the water would cling to you. Which of course left me extremely uncomfortable for most of those thirty blocks.

I was just reaching the last stretch to what Abe had pointed out was Sydney's apartment, I could even see the car that we had bought in Siberia parked on the street, when Abe suddenly stopped in front of me.

I had been so focused on getting to Sydney's apartment, praying she had air-conditioning, that I didn't notice him stop and I ran into the back of him.

"What the hell, Abe?" I asked indignantly.

"There are dhampirs out in front of the building." He told me, and as I followed his eyesight I could see the fifteen or so guardians who were handing out flyers.

A woman walked by me holding one of the flyers and I got a good look at what it said. It was a Wanted poster, with my face on it. I suddenly felt like an outlaw.

I turned to Abe, panic in my eyes. "They know we're here!"

Abe pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number. As he held the receiver to his ear, he looked at me. "Rose, don't be dramatic. It's standard procedure to put out a nation-wide search for fugitives." He said condescendingly.

At this point, someone must have picked up on the other end, because Abe turned away from me, and he began to speak. "Hello? Sydney?" He asked, to which he got an inaudible response. "It's Abe. I need you to open the back door to your building and let me in. Meet me in like three minutes." He said, and then he flipped the phone closed.

Abe grabbed my arm and pulled me into the little gift shop we were standing in front of, grabbing the first two things he saw, a black New Orleans sweatshirt and some sunglasses. He hastily paid for his things and then thrust them into my arms. "Put these on." He told me and I did as directed. I was not going to go against Abe on this one, he seemed to be the kind of guy who knew how to sneak around. In fact, in Russia they called him zmey, the serpent.

"Act natural." He told me, and I couldn't help but smile at the cliché-ness of it all.

We went around the building and were greeted by Sydney at the back door, luckily without being noticed by the guardians out front.

As I saw her, I smiled. Sydney had let her dark blonde hair grow longer so that it now hung to her shoulders. From where she stood in the doorway the sun was hitting her face beautifully, lighting up the gold in the little tattoo on her cheek. Despite the heat and early hour, I wasn't surprised to see Sydney up and fully dressed in a knee length pin stripe skirt and white collared button-up shirt. She was wearing boots and I couldn't help but think that she must be melting in this heat.

I made a mental note that if I ever got out of the mess I was in, I would send her a briefcase for Christmas. She was just that kind of girl.

Sydney looked at Abe and gave him a small uncomfortable smile. "Mr. Mazur, I was a little surprised by your call. I honestly wasn't expecting you." Her eyes flickered over me and then back to Abe. "If I had known that you were bringing a guest I would have looked a little more presentable."

I laughed and pulled the hood down and the sunglasses off. "Hey Syd." I smiled.

Surprise registered on her face before she replaced it with her usual all-business look. "Rose?" She stepped into the building hurriedly and gestured for us to follow her into the building.

We walked silently up the stairs and then into Sydney's small one bedroom apartment.

The inside of her home was not unexpected. Very clean and organized all the furniture white, even the small table in the corner near her spotless kitchen.

Once we were all safely inside her home, Sydney closed and locked the door and turned to Abe and I. "Would you like anything to drink? I have tea, coffee, and water."

Abe smile warmly at Sydney, and I didn't miss the uneasiness that flickered across her face. "Tea would be lovely Sydney."

She looked over at me. "You got any vodka?" I asked, and Abe gave me a dirty look. "Kidding, kidding." I shrugged. "Just some water please."

Sydney walked into the kitchen and got us our beverages and then gestured for us all to take a seat at her table.

Once seated, she turned to me. "Are you aware that there is an army of Guardians out in front of this building handing out Wanted posters with your face on them?"

"Is that what those were? And here I thought that I had finally made it big as a model." I told her in mock innocence.

Sydney wasn't amused, not that I thought she would be. "What on Earth have you gotten yourself into?"

"I have been framed for the murder of the Queen." I shrugged.

Sydney pursed her lips and glanced at me sideways. "Did you kill the Queen?" She asked.

"No. Like I said, I was _framed._" I answered her defensively.

She stared at my face for a moment longer and then sighed. "I believe you. I mean, you may be an unnatural evil creature of the night, but you never struck me as someone who would kill out of cold blood."

"Thanks?" I said, not sure if she meant it as a complement.

"Your welcome. Now, what can I do for you?" She asked.

"I need you to get me those files that you told me someone stole from the Alchemist's. The ones on Eric Dragomir."

"Rose, I told you that I can't do that."

"Look Sydney, I really need those files. It's a matter of life and death." Okay, that may have been a little dramatic, but I could tell that it hit home with Sydney.

She sighed again. "Does it have something to do with the Queen's murder?" She asked.

"It's related." I told her carefully. It wasn't really a lie, I had a gut feeling telling me that the two may very well be related.

"Alright. I'll need a couple of days. I'll call Abe's phone when I get them." She said standing up.

I followed her lead. "I'm not sure that's a good idea. His phone may be traceable."

Both Abe and Sydney laughed at me. It was Sydney who spoke, though. "Please Rose. He's the Zmey, his phones are not traceable."

We left shortly after that, and returned to our hotel.

Exhausted, I passed out as soon as I was safely in bed.

I slept a long time before I was interrupted by Adrian, luring me into one of his dreams.

I could tell this dream was going to be quick, because Adrian was kind of flickering in and out of focus and he didn't pick out an elaborate landscape, everything was just white.

"Little dhampir, come downstairs and get me." He told me.

"You're here already? What time is it?" I asked him.

"It's ten p.m." I left right after Tatiana's funeral."

"Okay, I'll be down in a sec." I told him and then I woke up.

I flew downstairs, anxious to see him. Honestly, I would have been an anxious to see anyone after spending like three days alone with Abe.

As I emerged from the elevator, I saw him, standing around a whole bunch of suitcases, Eddie right behind him.

His hair was the usual Adrian messy. He was wearing tan shorts and flip-flops with a brown t-shirt, and he looked sexy.

I barreled into him, and threw my arms around him in a tight hug. "Adrian. I'm so glad you're here." I whispered to him.

Adrian held me back. "I've missed you Rose." He whispered back.


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

I pulled away from Adrian and turned to Eddie. "Guardian Castile, it's good to see you." I told him respectfully.

Eddie grinned and pulled me into a hug. "Come on Rose, no titles between us."

Eddie and I parted and I turned and starting walking back towards the elevator. "Come on."

Adrian turned and began talking to someone and for the first time I noticed the feeder that Adrian had brought with him.

She was young, maybe a little older than me, with mousy brown hair and glazed over blue eyes. Definitely a vampire-bite junkie.

Something about seeing her churned uncomfortably in my stomach. Just the idea that a feeder had to come with us at all upset me, and I found myself getting irritated with Adrian for some inexplicable reason. "Are you going to introduce me to your friend?" I asked snottily.

Adrian mistook the malice behind the words for jealousy and grinned at me broadly. "This is Dana." He said. "Dana this is Rose."

Dana looked over at me, her eyes slightly unfocused. "Hi Rose." She stated dreamily.

"Hi." I replied back shortly, but she was so far gone off of the bites that she didn't notice my unpleasantness. I turned to Adrian and Eddie. "Let's go upstairs." I told them.

They all followed me into the elevator and then up to our room.

The look of surprise on Abe's face as we entered was laughable. His eyes narrowed at Adrian and Eddie and then darted over to me. "What are they doing in here?" He asked.

"They're here to help."

"No. I mean, don't you think they should get their own room?" He asked, and it was then that I noticed that Abe had adopted some sort of protective stance towards me.

Adrian cowed a little under Abe's death stare. "Of course, sir." He said solemnly.

"Very good. Well then, I see you have brought a feeder do you mind?" Abe inclined his head to Dana and Adrian waved a hand at him.

"By all means." He answered him casually.

"Adrian!" I shouted, suddenly outraged for Dana.

"What?" He shrugged.

"Don't you think you should ask her if she minds being passed around?"

Adrian looked sheepish for a moment and turned towards Dana, who was absent-mindedly gazing around in a vampire bite coma.

"Dana-," he began but she silenced him with a wave of her hand.

"I don't mind." She stated. Okay, so I guess she wasn't as out of it as I thought she was.

I also didn't feel as bad for her when Abe pulled her into our bathroom and shut the door.

Adrian clapped his hand together and turned to me. "You hungry? Cause I am starving. We should go to Arnauds." He told me, and when I stared at him uncomprehendingly he laughed. "I forgot you've never been here before. Arnauds is like the best possible place to eat at here. It has a cool atmosphere too. You get all dressed up and go eat under the candlelight, while live jazz musicians play music. You'll love it." He told me

Adrian stepped towards one of his suitcases and unzipped it. He pulled out a green button up shirt and a pair of black dress pants and then looked up at me. "Aren't you going to get dressed? You can't wear that to Arnauds. I mean, I may like the jeans and tank-top look, but I don't think they will let you in dressed like that."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Adrian, we can't go out. First, there are flyers all over the city with my face on them. Someone will recognize me."

Adrian smiled slightly. "Yeah, I saw those. They aren't very good, are they? You're much hotter in person." He shrugged. "But, don't worry, no one will recognize you."

"Even if that were true, which I doubt, I can't go. I don't have any clothes."

Adrian went to another suitcase, pulled out another item of clothing, and tossed it to me. "I figured that, so I picked this up before I came to the hotel."

I shook the dress out and looked at it. It was a gorgeous shade of purple that would have looked awesome with my brown hair. As it was, it would still okay with the red. "Adrian, I-," I was pretty much speechless, so in response I ran up and hugged him. "Thanks. But I still don't think we can go."

Adrian handed me a ring and smiled. "You're right. We can't go, but I can with my lovely blonde date." He said and I realized that he had handed me a charmed ring like the one Lissa had given me to escape.

Once again, I was speechless. I rolled my eyes and walked over to the bathroom, where Abe and Dana had just exited to put the dress on. Adrian grinned even broader. "There are shoes in the bag somewhere too."

Abe looked between Adrian and I and his very own smile, albeit a devious one, spread across his lips. "Are _we_ going on a date?" He asked, and the tone of his voice left no room for debating the fact that he meant we, as me, Adrian, and himself.

Adrian, while I'm sure had meant this to be a romantic date, smiled casually at Abe. "To Arnauds. You're welcome to join us if you want." He offered.

"I love Arnauds." He said by way of acceptance.

Half an hour later I found myself sitting sandwiched between Abe and Adrian, at a restaurant that was everything Adrian had described.

It was too bad I couldn't enjoy it, thanks to the fact that Abe and Adrian were bickering over what they thought would be best for me after this whole ordeal was finished.

"Rose should resume her post as a Guardian." Abe stated.

To which Adrian responded, "Come on, Abe. They aren't going to let Rose be anyone's Guardian. They were already considering giving her a desk job as it was. Rose would be much happier traveling the world with me, and killing strigoi every once in a while than working a stuffy old desk job."

Abe turned to me. "What do you think?" He asked me, and Adrian turned to wait for my response as well. I twirled the glass of water I was holding and looked across the table at Eddie, who was doing his damndest not to smile at the ridiculousness of the situation, and then looked back down to my water glass.

"Well, I, um, I guess I haven't thought about it much." I answered honestly.

I didn't really have any idea what I was going to do after I found Lissa's brother or sister and cleared my name. The truth was, that Adrian was probably correct and I was going to end up with a boring desk job if I went back to the Guardians, but I wasn't sure if traveling around aimlessly with Adrian was something I really wanted to do either.

Luckily, all further discussion on the topic was brought to a halt by the appearance of our waiter. "What can I get y'all?" He asked us.

Adrian ordered filet mignon, as did Eddie, Abe and Dana.

I was not hungry thanks to the fact that I kept turning my unsure future over in my head. "Can I get a vodka and tonic?" I asked, knowing that I would regret that decision later.

The waiter looked at me carefully. "Can I see your I.D?" He asked, and I mentally kicked myself for my bad luck.

Adrian looked over at me questioningly, and then moved his gaze on to the waiter. "You've already seen her I.D." He told him, and the guy's face went blank for a second as Adrian's compulsion took hold.

"Oh yeah, I did." He answered dazedly.

Adrian looked over at me again, and made a little sad face. "Go ahead Adrian. Get a drink." I told him resignedly, because it would be hypocritical to get a drink and then not allow Adrian to get one as well.

Adrian ordered the same thing as me, and the waiter walked away.

And Abe started in on Adrian. "She is underage Adrian, you shouldn't have done that." He hissed.

"You didn't stop me, so I thought it was fine."

Adrian and Abe bickered over it as the waiter returned with mine and Adrian's drinks.

The waiter placed mine in front of me, and I immediately downed it and then slammed the glass back down on the table, causing Adrian and Abe to stop fighting and look at me. I looked up at the waiter and smiled as charmingly as I could. "Keep 'em coming."

I ended up ordering grilled salmon to eat, although it's taste went unnoticed by me, because by the time my food arrived I was pretty drunk from the four vodka and tonics I had consumed.

I ordered one to go right before we left, and then we left the restaurant and began walking, well I was more like stumbling, back towards the hotel.

Adrian's arm was around me, and as I leaned into him, I noticed his hand reach towards his pocket before he shook it and dropped it back to his side.

I rolled my eyes. "Just smoke a damned cigarette, Adrian. I'll let it go this time." I told him, and he hugged me closer to him.

"You are so understanding, little dhampir." He told me, as he let his cigarette.

Once again, I could see the doors to the Inn ahead of us, so I took off Adrian's ring and picked up my pace, when a figure stepped out in front of me and stopped me short. I dropped the glass of vodka in my hand and it shattered on the concrete, splashing vodka all up my legs, and just stared.

His brown hair was loose around his shoulders and his brown eyes, full of questions.

I shrugged myself out from under Adrian, a knee-jerk reaction that I don't think he noticed because he was slightly drunk.

"Dimitri." I breathed.

"Rose."

"Figures they would send you to come after me. How did the Guardians find me anyway?" I asked, sagging in defeat. Looking at his god-like glory, I really didn't even mind the fact that it was Dimitri that they had sent to come get me.

Confusion flickered across his face, before Dimitri spoke again. "Rose, I'm not here to arrest you." He said.

In my drunken stupor maybe I caught on a little late. But I was quickly brought up to speed when Lissa, Christian, and Mikhail stepped out from the shadows.

"Rosemarie Hathaway," Lissa began, storming up to me.

"Lissa, what are you-," I started, walking towards her with my arms open so that I could hug her. I hadn't felt her through the bond since alcohol numbs our connection, and despite the fact that I hadn't wanted her involved in this mess, I was glad to see her.

I was interrupted, however, by Lissa's fist connecting with my face.

I was surprised, there was a lot more force behind the punch than I thought that Lissa was capable of, but I wasn't injured at all. Mostly, just shock was what caused me to rub at my jaw where her fist had made contact.

I stared at Lissa a long moment, before I grinned slightly. "You've been practicing with Christian again, haven't you?" I asked her.

This time when Lissa spoke my name it was with pure relieved happiness. "Rose." She said and then she threw her arms around me and hugged me.


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

After making our way back to the hotel, we checked out two more rooms. Abe decided to let Lissa and I take the first room, which meant that Dimitri and Christian roomed with us.

In an attempt to keep watch over him, Abe insisted that Adrian and he share a room, and Eddie stayed with them. Dana and Mikhail took the last room, along with Lissa and Christian's feeder a man named Tripp.

At the moment, Dimitri and Christian were standing outside the door while Lissa and I talked.

"Why did you leave me Rose?" Lissa asked.

I sighed, and decided that since she was here now, there was no point lying to her. "I heard a rumor that they wanted to make you Queen, and I didn't want to ruin your shot at being Queen." I answered.

Lissa rolled her eyes at me. "Rose, I could only be Queen if I was on the Council, and since I don't have a family I can't be on the Council."

"Uh, yeah. That's the thing Liss. You have a little brother or sister out there." I told her.

Several emotions flickered through the bond. Shock, disbelief, more shock, and finally anger. "That's impossible." She stated simply.

I shook my head at her and handed her Tatiana's note. She read through it, and then I watched as she crumpled the note in her hand. She held the crumpled note towards me. "This is what Tatiana left you to do?" She asked.

I nodded. "And you weren't going to tell me about it?"

"Liss, I didn't want you to miss your chance to be Queen." I answered.

Lissa turned to me, understanding in her jade eyes. "I appreciate the concern, Rose. But from now on, please don't keep secrets from me, and let me decide what is best for me."

I hugged Lissa again. "Deal, as long as you promise to forgive me."

"I forgive you, but you understand if I don't believe this is true. I mean, it must be if Tatiana told you about it, but still. I hate to think of my father like that." She said, sadness flowing from her through the bond.

"Liss," I began in an attempt to comfort her. "Your dad was still a good guy. He just had some faults."

Lissa shrugged. "I guess. Any idea where to find my little brother or sister?" She asked.

"Las Vegas. But, I'm waiting on my friend Sydney to give me some more information."

Lissa nodded but didn't say anything.

"Hey, Liss? How did you find me, anyway? Adrian told you, didn't he?" I asked her, unable to refrain any longer.

Lissa shook her head. "Not really. He just told me that you wouldn't be alone. And then he came up with that half-cocked story about finding schools and I figured he knew where you were and was just throwing them off his tail so he could come to you. So, I followed his lead."

I glanced at Lissa sideways and let out a deep breath. "You don't really think I killed the Queen, do you?" I asked her.

Lissa's face adopted a shocked expression. "Of course not, Rose! Dimitri told Adrian and I to tell the Council that we thought that you were guilty so that they would quit questioning us about your whereabouts. He said if they were certain that we thought you were guilty, they wouldn't ask us about you."

I sighed in relief. "Oh thank god. I really thought that you believed that. I was crushed."

Lissa smiled at me, and for a second it felt like old times between us. "Rose, I could never believe the worst of you."

I smiled back, but we were interrupted by a knock on the door. "Come in," Lissa said over her shoulder, and Dimitri walked in, looking every bit as God-like as I always thought he did.

"Can I have a moment alone with Rose?" He asked Lissa, and she nodded.

"Sure, I'll just go and have a word with Christian." She said, shooting a conspiratorial wink my way.

She left, and Dimitri came and sat next to me on the bed.

"Rose," he started, and I could tell that I was about to get a lecture, so I hastily cut him off.

"Look, comrade. I know you're probably going to feed me some line about how I should just leave it to the rest of them to find Lissa's family and turn myself in, but I just can't. I won't be executed for a crime I didn't commit."

Dimitri arched one of his gorgeous eyebrows. "I wasn't going to say anything like that. I came because," Dimitri paused and stood up, turning his back on me.

He was breathing heavily, and my heart went out to him. Whatever Dimitri had to say was important to him.

I stood up and put a hand on his shoulder. "Dimitri," I started, and he spun around to face me, his eyes catching mine and holding them with their depths.

"Rose, I was so worried about you." He said, his eyes burning with an intensity that kept me cemented to the spot, and I was suddenly very aware of how close his face was to mine.

"Dimitri I," I started, but Dimitri made it clear he wasn't finished talking.

"I did, horrible things to you, _Roza_. Horrible, horrific things that I will have to remember for the rest of my life."

"And to see you like that. See you willingly give your blood just so that you could be with me," I was suddenly starting to catch on. He was telling me why he didn't love me anymore. And it seemed like my worst fear was realized, Dimitri though I was a blood-whore.

"Dimitri, I'm sorry I made you think less of me." I told him, averting my gaze to the floor.

Dimitri stamped his foot and placed a hand on my chin, lifting my face back to his. "No! I could never think less of you. It's me, Rose. I am disgusted by what I did to you. You, who came to free me. You, who loved me, even when there wasn't much to love. It's not you that is the problem. It's me. Every time I see you, I remember what I did, and I hate myself a little more."

Dimitri dropped his hand from my chin, and looked away from me. "That's why we can't be together, Rose. Not because I don't love you. I'll always love you. After what has happened, I would be a fool not to. No, we can't be together, because you deserve more."

His words were swimming around wildly in my head. How dare he? Just as I began to accept that he didn't love me anymore, he had the audacity to tell me differently.

A tear formed in my eye, and I looked at Dimitri with an unwavering glare. "Dimitri," I started and his eyes flew back to mine. "You can't do this. You can't play games with me. I don't even know why you bothered to tell me all of this, it doesn't change anything does it? You're still telling me to move on with my life, that we can't be together. So, you just wanted to cause me more pain?" With each word I was getting angrier and angrier, and my voice rose an octave or two. "What did you wake-up today and think, 'Rose's existence has been shitty lately, let me throw her bone just so that I can take it right back?'"

"Rose," Dimitri started, but I wasn't interested in what he had to say.

"Oh, no you don't! I am not finished yet! That's another thing, where do you get off deciding what's best for me? I decide what's best for me! And what was all that nonsense about you not knowing me," I began to stalk towards him, and as a response he was walking backwards, a shocked expression on his face.

"You barely know me? You barely know me? I quit school to go after you! I broke into Tarasov just so that I could find the one person who said they could bring Strigoi back, for you, and you don't know m-," at this point Dimitri cut me off, straightening himself, and cupping his hand around my neck, then pulling my lips to his. A pretty effective means of shutting me up, as it were.

I pulled away from Dimitri, and stared at him in shock. "Of course I know you Rose. But I wasn't about to tell them that." He told me with a small smile. "But, it doesn't change the fact that I don't deserve you, and so _we will never be together again_."

My heart fractured again, as the little flicker of hope that Dimitri's kiss had caused died out. He hadn't changed his mind, he just wanted to tell me the truth.

"How can you say that? If you loved me, it wouldn't matter." I told him in a small voice that made me cringe.

"Rose, I said that I love you. I meant that. But _loving_ someone, and being _in love_ with someone are two different things. I love you, you will always hold a place in my heart, that hasn't changed. But, I told you before that being Strigoi, it changed me. I can't be in love with someone. My soul is too twisted." Dimitri turned away from me, to look down at the floor, and when he looked back up at me, his expression was unreadable. "Besides, can you honestly tell me that you could just leave Adrian and come back to me? I can see it, you love him, too, don't you?" He asked.

I opened my mouth to answer him, tell him no, but then I stopped myself. The truth of the matter was, I did care for Adrian. Part of me even loved him. And I had already admitted to myself that once I got over Dimitri completely, I knew that I could see myself with Adrian, loving him completely.

Dimitri's gaze burned into mine, and I knew that he read volumes from my hesitation. Once again I moved to speak, but I was stopped cold by another voice.

"Well, Rose. Answer his question, do you love me?" My eyes flew to the doorway, where Adrian stood casually leaned up against the frame, watching Dimitri and I with interest.

Suddenly, I realized that the two loves of my life were staring at me, waiting for me to answer the question.

In light of everything going on in my life, I so did not need this right now.


	12. Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

"Well," Adrian said, stepping into the room fully and looking at me. "Answer the question. Do you love me? Will you ever, or are you just going to play with me until I go crazy?"

I looked back and forth between Adrian and Dimitri, completely speechless. How was I supposed to answer that? Of course I loved Adrian, he'd been there for me even when I was chasing after Dimitri.

But my heart? My heart longed for Dimitri. Not that it mattered. Dimitri wasn't asking because he wanted me to deny it. He wanted me to say that I did, wanted me to assure him that I would move on with my life and forget him, because that's what Dimitri wanted, for both of us to move on and forget about each other.

Adrian on the other hand, he was available to me. And judging by the look on his face, he desperately wanted to hear me say that I loved him, and to be honest part of me, and not an insignificant part, wanted to tell him what he wanted to hear.

I took a deep breath, knowing that in saying my next words I would be cementing my future. _You can't have them both, Hathaway_. As it was, I really couldn't have one of them anyway.

"I-," Dimitri and Adrian both leaned towards me and stilled. "Uh." The words were catching in my throat. "I," I was saved by Abe who chose this moment, thankfully, to wander into my room.

"It's time Rose. Sydney just called and she got the information already. Let's go." He said, and then he looked around and noticed the tension in the air. "Was I interrupting something?" He asked, confusion evident on my face.

Dimitri was the first to move, swiftly walking towards the exit. "No, sir." He said and then he brushed past Adrian and into the hall.

Abe looked back and forth between Adrian and I, shrugged, and then turned and walked back out into the hall.

I made my move for the exit, but Adrian grabbed me by the arm and pulled me close to him. "This isn't over yet, you still owe me an answer." He whispered into my ear as he led me out into the hall.

"Later, okay." I whispered back.

"Sure, Rose. Sure." Adrian said, and I could tell that I'd hurt his feelings.

With my life being the mess that it currently was, I was starting to hope that the Guardians would just find me and arrest me. That way I would never have to answer Dimitri's question.

We made our way out onto Bourbon Street and then walked all the way to the Café Du Monde, which is where Sydney had decided to meet us.

She was still dressed in the same outfit she had worn earlier, and as she noticed the fact that our party had grown I could see the anxiety play on her face. Sydney, being kind of a religious nut, didn't care too much for dhampirs or Moroi, so she probably wasn't too comfortable sitting with a group of us.

She stood when we approached and nodded to Abe and I. "Mr. Mazur. Rose." She offered by way of greeting.

She eyeballed the group before her eyes drifted over Adrian and as she afforded him a small smile, I was suddenly reminded that she had once said that he was cute, for a Moroi. Surprisingly, I felt a little jealous when he smiled back at her, turning on the full effect of his charm.

I shot him a warning glare, and he shrugged in response.

"Sydney," I said, and she immediately snapped her attention to me. "I'd like you to meet _my boyfriend_ Adrian, and my friends: Lissa and her boyfriend Christian, Mikhail, Eddie, Dana, Tripp, and Dimitri." Her eyes popped when I said Dimitri's name.

She glanced nervously at him and then moved in closer to whisper in my ear. "I thought he was Strigoi?" She asked.

I looked back at him meaningfully and then faced her once more. "Does he look like a Strigoi to you?" I asked her, unable to keep the protectiveness from my voice.

Sydney glanced up at Dimitri and then looked at me again. "No, I suppose not." She said, and then she gestured for us all to sit down. "Now, about the files you wanted me to get. I couldn't get the actual files sent here, but I have a pretty detailed account of what was in them. Apparently Eric Dragomir deposited money into an account at Brynnsworth Bank in Las Vegas for five years before he died. The account was set up for a Jane Doe, which of course doesn't really help you narrow it down," she paused, and I felt myself slump a little. Other than the bank name, none of this was really going to help.

A second later though, Sydney spoke up and gave me my first real glimmer of hope. "However, the account wasn't set up as a joint account for Jane Doe and Prince Dragomir. It was an account set up for the Dragomir family and Jane Doe." She stated.

I didn't really get her point. The Dragomir's had no family, Lissa was it.

Lissa made the connection a half second before me. "Ha," she gasped. "That means that I can go in and ask about the account and they have to give me the information!" She stated.

Sydney's eyes flickered over her briefly and then she looked back at me. "Yep, as long as Princess Dragomir goes in and asks for the information, they are required to give it to her." Sydney leaned back in her chair, obviously pleased with her self.

I stood up. "Thanks, Syd. You have no idea how much you have helped us." I told her.

Sydney stood up, reached into her pocket, and pulled out a small black velvet box. "Here Rose," she said stiffly, handing me the box.

I took it from her and opened it. Nestled inside, there was a small silver crucifix on a silver link chain. "Er, thanks?" I asked, not really sure what I was supposed to think of her 'gift.'

"My dad sends them to me all the time. I know that since you're sort of evil, you probably won't wear it, but I thought maybe it might bring you some luck."

"Thanks." I said again, and even though the gesture was kind of offensive, I genuinely meant it.

Sydney nodded, and then without saying much more, she started walking down the street towards the huge Cathedral across the street.

It was right as she stepped off the curb that I felt the nausea roll over me, and I realized that we were in big trouble.

Three strigoi stood between Sydney and I, and I could tell that they were after her, not having noticed my group yet. Dimitri and Eddie noticed too, but froze as they noticed what I had noticed just before them.

Aside from the Strigoi, we had another huge threat. Across the street, the group of Guardians that were passing out flyers stood. They hadn't noticed us yet, but they hadn't noticed the Strigoi either, and even if they had, there was no way they were going to reach Sydney in time.

I turned to Mikhail and Eddie. "Take the Moroi and the feeders to the airport and go to Las Vegas. I'll meet you there when I can, at the MGM Grand." I said, saying the name of the first casino I could think of.

"Rose," Liss started, but I didn't have time to argue with her.

"Please Liss, no time. I promise I will meet you there."

She nodded and allowed her self to be dragged down the street.

I took off running towards the Strigoi, Dimitri at my tail, knowing that I was probably about to get caught.

I was reminded of the thought I had earlier, in which I had wished that the Guardians would find me. "Way to jinx yourself, Rose." I said out loud, right as I pounced on the first Strigoi.

Dimitri turned to me. "What?" Dimitri yelled to me.

"Don't worry about it. Just fight!" I exclaimed.

It was at this point that the Guardians noticed us, and I realized that I didn't have a stake.

"Shit." I stated as the strigoi I was facing realized it too.


	13. Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

As soon as the strigoi realized I wasn't much of a threat, he came at me with everything he had.

Not that I couldn't handle my own in a fight, I would be able to defend myself for a while, but seeing as I had no way to kill him, all he had to do was fight me until I was too tired to fight back. He knew it, I could tell, thanks to the humor glinting in his eyes.

Dimitri staked the other two strigoi quickly and then turned to me. "_Roza_," he started. "What are you doing?"

I couldn't turn to look at him. "Uh, I don't have a stake, comrade." I yelled to him, right as the strigoi got the better of me, and knocked me to the floor.

I heard the thundering of footsteps, and then the strigoi fell limp against my body. My first reaction to him pressing against me, was that I was dead. And then I realized that he was dead, and I pushed him off of me.

I sat up and looked at Dimitri, a look of pure panic on his face. "I, uh, I thought he was going to kill you."

Dimitri offered a hand to help me get up and I graciously took it. "Thanks. I though he was going to kill me too."

The entire fight had maybe taken five seconds, but I could see the Guardians approaching us, and I knew it was all over for me. The only thing I could do was hope that Dimitri could get out of here before they realized he was with me. "Comrade, get out of here! Go to Las Vegas and help find Lissa's sibling." I told him.

Dimitri stood where he was, not moving an inch. "No. I won't let them take you."

I rolled my eyes and pushed Dimitri. "GO!" I screamed as the Guardians started to skid to a halt around me.

I looked around there were at least thirty of them surrounding me at this point, and judging by the looks on their faces, they had no idea who I was, yet.

"Are you guys okay?" A Guardian took a step towards me, and Dimitri spun me around behind him.

"We're fine." He growled.

The guardian threw up his hands in surrender. "Just making sure- hey aren't you Guardian Belikov? I thought you were supposed to be protecting the Dragomir Princess in Seattle, what are you doing here?"

"She wanted to come see the city. Mikhail took her to safety when the strigoi attacked."

The guardian's eyes narrowed suspiciously as he moved his gaze from Dimitri to me. "We weren't aware you had brought any female guardian's with you." He said, taking another step towards us, causing Dimitri to step back again, and pushing me with him.

"We didn't. She's a blood-whore, who happened upon us by chance." I cringed at the word, but didn't refute it. I knew Dimitri was just trying to save my ass.

The Guardian looked at me again, and then looked down at the Wanted flyer in his hands. "She looks an awful lot like Rose Hathaway." He stated, and all the Guardians surrounding us took another step towards us.

There was a long moment of tense silence, as they thought this over, and observed me, trying to figure out if I was indeed Rose Hathaway.

I took a step sideways and out from Dimitri's protection to face my accuser myself, but at that precise moment, the sound of squealing breaks alerted me, as well as pulled the Guardians' attention from me.

"Move!" I heard Adrian's voice yell to the Guardian's as he drove the white Honda that Abe and I had driven here right through the circle.

The Guardians on that side all dove out of the way, just in time, and I saw Adrian lean over and throw the passenger side door open. "Get in!" He yelled, doing his best to keep himself hidden from view of the Guardians.

I hesitated, not sure if running was the best option. I didn't have a lot of time to consider my options, though, because Dimitri came up behind me and threw me into the back seat and then hopped into the car and slammed the door shut as Adrian hit the gas and took off down the street.

We drove a few blocks before I leaned towards Adrian and Dimitri in the front seat. "Well, we need to drop this car somewhere and get a new one." I told them.

"Don't worry, little dhampir. Big Daddy Adrian will take care of everything." He stated in a strange voice that lead me to believe that we weren't dealing with a sane Adrian.

His driving kind of backed that thought up. As he hit the freeway pushing nearly one hundred, the term speed demon came to mind.

Dimitri seemed to be thinking along the same lines, because his face had gone white and there was a definite air of panic emanating from him as he gripped the oh-shit handle for dear life.

It was about at this moment that a thought occurred to me. I was still drunk from dinner. With all the excitement that had just taken place it had kind of dulled, but now as I began to relax I could feel it washing over me.

Chances were, Adrian was still drunk, too. And drunk and a little crazy behind the wheel of a car, does not a good idea make.

Softly, so as not to alarm him, I spoke to Adrian. "You need to pull over and let Dimitri drive."

Adrian looked back at me, his eyes slightly wild. "What? No, he got to rescue you back there, I get to rescue you now!" He exclaimed.

"Adrian," I tried again. "You are drunk. Please pull the car over so that you don't kill us all."

"I'm not-," Adrian swerved and cut someone off resulting in us getting what I like to call the Glorious Twofer, a horn honk accompanied by a lingering middle finger. Adrian sighed. "I'm drunk." He admitted and he pulled off to the side of the freeway and slunk into the back seat with me, lying across the backseat with his head in my lap.

Dimitri made his way over to the driver's side and slowly pulled the car back onto the road. We didn't drive for long, when he pulled off at the next exit.

"What are you doing?" Adrian asked in a bored voice.

"Rose said we need to dump this car and get a new one." He stated. "Everyone out."

We left the car at a gas station with the keys inside and walked for about an hour to a used car lot.

It was Adrian who ended up purchasing the car, and even though Dimitri rolled his eyes at the choice, I could see the excitement that driving the car incited in him.

And well, I got his point. What man doesn't want to be behind the wheel of a sapphire blue 1976 Corvette Stingray? As it was, I was salivating at just the fantasy of driving it.

Adrian handed the keys to Dimitri with a look of longing on his face. "Drive Little Rose like she deserves to be driven." He told him.

I blanched. "You named your car Little Rose?" I asked, half flattered, half disgusted.

Dimitri smiled and gave Adrian a knowing look and Adrian shrugged. "Of course Little Dhampir, this car is fast, deadly, and gorgeous. Just like you." He said, stumbling forward and tapping me on the nose.

Dimitri slid into the driver's seat, and Adrian and I resumed our positions in the backseat.

It was another twenty minutes before anyone spoke again, and it was Adrian. He looked up at me, with a small smile on his face. "Rose," he began, and his smile flickered and his face became serious. "You still owe me an answer. Do you love me?" He slurred at me drunkenly.

I sighed, and looked up into the rearview mirror where I could clearly see Dimitri watching, waiting for my answer as well.

My eyes never moved from the rearview, so I saw the disappointment flash over Dimitri's face when I put the back of my hand against Adrian's cheek, and whispered, "Of course I love you, Adrian."

**A/N:**

**I would just like to say to all the Dimitri fans, as well as the Adrian fans, that just because Rose says she loves Adrian, it does not meant that she will end up with him. To be honest, I'm still a little torn about who I want her to be with. Here is why: Being me, I would choose Adrian, not that I don't love Dimitri, he is one sexy Russian God, but he is just too serious for me.**

** But I am not Rose, and if I was thinking in the context of who Rose should be with, I would have to say Dimitri. **

** Like I said, I have in no way made up my mind, at this point it could still go either way, and I would love to hear your input on the matter.**

** Thanks for enjoying my story. **


	14. Chapter 14

This chapter may be rated more M than K…Just a warning…

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

It was going to take us twenty-six hours to drive to Las Vegas.

It was exactly twenty-five and a half hours too long when taking into account that I was making the journey with the two loves of my life. Talk about crappy luck.

Dimitri hadn't spoke one word to me since I had told Adrian that I was in love with him. I didn't really understand why. It was him, after all, who had told me to be with Adrian. Even after he kissed me back in New Orleans, he had still told me he didn't want to be with me.

Adrian had passed out after my admission, and so the silence between Dimitri and I seemed that much more palpable.

This was what he wanted! He had practically begged for me to say it out loud, hadn't he? Now, I wasn't so sure. His words had made it seem that way, but his attitude now left me with questions that I probably shouldn't have wanted the answers to. But being me, I couldn't keep my mouth shut any longer.

"Dimitri," I started and he turned to look at me. "Are you mad?" I asked him. I felt extremely childish as I waited for his response.

Dimitri observed me for a moment, and then let out a sigh. "I just want you to be happy."

I should have left the conversation at that, but his comment outraged me. "You want me to be happy? I would have been happy if you still loved me."

"Rose, that's just not an option." I rolled my eyes.

Of course it wasn't. I lived by Dimitri's rules I always had. When he was my mentor, I did everything when he said to. When he had been strigoi, I nearly gave my life up for him. And now, well, I was still following Dimitri's Law to the letter.

"I know, comrade." I sagged, forward right as Adrian fluttered back to consciousness.

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty." I said, moving my attention to Adrian.

Adrian rubbed his eyes, and blinked a couple of times before sitting up and facing me. "What time is it?"

I looked at the little clock on the dashboard. "About twelve in the afternoon. We should be stopping soon, we've been driving for like twelve hours straight." I smiled at him.

Adrian smiled back and pulled me to him. I let him hold me, knowing that after what I had said to him last night, he had every right to do it. "It was nice that you were the first thing I saw when I woke up." He whispered into my ear.

I didn't really know how to respond, so I didn't.

Fifteen minutes later, Dimitri pulled off the exit. We were somewhere in New Mexico, although I couldn't remember the exact location.

Dimitri pulled into a motel, and Adrian got out and got us a room. I was starting to really miss the comfort of my bed back at the Academy, and that was saying something. I had just been spending way too much time in motels lately.

There were two beds in the motel room, which presented a very serious problem since there were three of us.

I kind of figured that Adrian thought that he and I could share one of the beds, which really didn't bother me, since it wouldn't have been the first time Adrian and I slept in the same bed together. What did bother me, was sleeping in the same bed while Dimitri slept in the one next to us.

Adrian, however, surprised me. "I slept for a while guys, so the two of you can take the beds for now, I'll just sit over in this chair and watch TV.

I wasn't going to turn his offer down, seeing as I had just stayed up all night driving with Dimitri.

Dimitri seemed to be thinking along the same lines, and we both went to sleep.

I had an interesting dream, but one that I really couldn't find a meaning to. I was back at Court, getting my fortune told by Ambrose's Aunt. She flipped the cards, three, each one of them as macabre as the first. The Wheel of Fortune. Justice. Death. No matter how many times she shuffled and flipped the same three cards still came up.

Frantically, frantically she would scoop them up and place them back down. Over and over.

Finally, she gave up and looked at me, her face void of hope. "No matter what, your fate is sealed Rosemarie Hathaway." She told me in a haunting echo.

I turned from her and began to run, my silver stake falling out of my pocket as I went.

I flew awake to find that it was several hours later and Dimitri was not in our room, and Adrian was lying next to me. Apparently, I had cuddled into him while I slept because I woke up snuggled into his chest.

"Hey little dhampir." Adrian greeted, and I looked up at him.

"Hey, where did Dimitri go?" I asked. Adrian stiffened at the question and I looked up at him. He didn't look good. He was paler than usual and his eyes wore a sort of pained expression.

"Adrian, are you okay?"

Adrian grimaced and pulled his arm from around my shoulders. "I wish I would have remembered a god-damned feeder." He told me angrily.

A funny sort of longing tingled over me as his words clicked in my brain. Adrian was thirsty.

The thought that formed in my head hardly seemed like mine. _You could let him drink from you, again_.

I shook the idea away. That would definitely be a bad idea.

But the more I though it over the more it seemed like an okay idea. I mean, I had just let him drink from me like five days ago. And I had let Lissa drink from me for two years.

And besides, I needed to take care of Adrian, he was a Moroi, just like Lissa. It wouldn't be that big of a deal. It would be seen as necessary if anyone ever found out. Not that Adrian would tell anyone, I trusted him more than that.

I turned to Adrian, desperate to hide how badly I wanted that bite. "Adrian," I said softly, inclining my neck to him.

Adrian looked down at my neck and swallowed. He looked back up to my eyes, and then he turned away.

"No." He stated simply. "I won't do that to you. Not again." Despite his words I could see the hunger in his eyes. He wanted me.

He wanted me, and Dimitri didn't.

That was all it took. Something in me snapped and I pulled myself into his lap and whispered in his ear. "I want you to Adrian." And then I kissed him on the cheek.

He read the meaning in my words, and this time, when I offered my neck, he didn't hesitate.

I jerked as he bit into me, but all to soon the pain was replaced with the most intoxicating euphoria. I leaned my head back and sighed, while my hands moved to the back of Adrian's head and held him there.

After a few more minutes he pulled away from me, but I wasn't ready for his warmth to leave me, so I wrapped myself around him, crashing my lips against his and kissing him passionately.

My fingers slid down to the bottom of the t-shirt he was wearing and slowly I pulled it off of him. I backed away slightly so that I could get a good look at him. He may not have been Dimitri status when it came to muscles, but he still looked good.

Adrian leaned forward, and his mouth moved to my neck. I shivered slightly as his tongue snaked out over the fresh wounds he had just made and his hands gathered at my hips and began to slide my shirt up.

Adrian's hand went to my back, and he worked the snaps on my bra with one had. And then he held me, as I began to sob a little, thinking of the last time I had done this.

I had one fleeting thought before Adrian spoke again. _What about Dimitri_.

"Shh… Rose, you don't-," he began but I cut him off by kissing him.

Dimitri didn't matter, he didn't want me anymore.

Adrian leaned me backwards, and the rest became a blur.

I got up and took a shower, and Adrian followed me in. I didn't stop him. After what had just happened it would have been wrong to. Besides, part of me wanted him to follow.

As I flipped the shower on, and faced the spray, Adrian came up behind me and began massaging shampoo into my hair. His hands felt good as they worked their way through my hair, and I couldn't help myself from leaning back into him slightly.

I also couldn't help pang in my heart that his hands in my hair incited. _Dimitri's hands should be running through your hair._

I shook the thought away, it wouldn't do to dwell on what I could never have.

After we finished showering I got out, dried off and slipped my clothes back on.

I stepped out of the bathroom, my head still down-turned as I dried my hair out.

Adrian came out behind me, wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.

That was about the time _he_ spoke, his voice full of pain and I looked up and came to an abrupt halt.

"_Roza._"

I met his eyes and read the betrayal and anger on his face. He looked back and forth between Adrian and I, and then his eyes rested on the two bite marks Adrian had just made.

I hesitantly moved my gaze from his to glance at Adrian, hoping that he would say something to ease the awkwardness in the room.

Looking at Adrian didn't prove to be any help. He was just as speechless as I was.

I looked back at Dimitri, and realized that maybe I had been wrong. Maybe things were not as black and white as they seemed.

**A/N**

Okay, kids. Things may seem a little bad for our Dimitri fans. But don't worry, he may be down but he's not out for the count…

**Besides, Adrian deserved a little love.**


	15. Chapter 15

A/N

**You guys are rockin my world with your reviews.**

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Time slows down when you are confronted with awkward situations. It felt like hours had passed since I had walked out of the bathroom and been confronted by Dimitri.

But, it had only been minutes.

I took a step towards Dimitri, the desire to comfort him washing over me.

Adrian called me back. "Rose?"

I swung around to look at him, and I didn't like what I saw. Just that simple step forward had hurt him. He didn't deserve that.

I was caught in between the two of them, not knowing who to go to. I weighed my options. On one hand, Dimitri had been my first love. He had cast a spell over my heart that bound me to him for eternity. I would never feel the way I did for him with anyone else. He owned my soul.

On the other hand, Adrian was willing to change monumental things about himself to be with me. And not just for the novelty of being a royal Moroi dating a notorious bad girl dhampir. He had been there for me, even when he didn't agree with what I was doing. Been there, when Dimitri couldn't and then wouldn't be there. He genuinely loved me, so in that respect he owned my heart.

Fair? Hardly. Two great guys, and only one me.

And me? I didn't deserve either of them.

I took a shaky breath and looked between the two of them, again.

I once read a book where the main character was in love with two guys, I know amazing, every once and a while Rose Hathaway picks up a book. Anyway, I remember scoffing at the stupid girl, thinking that she was an idiot for thinking that she could love more than one person. At the time, I had only had eyes for Dimitri, so I couldn't imagine being in love with someone else.

Life changes a lot in less than a year. I suddenly got her point crystal clear. Nothing hurt worse than having your own heart ripped in two.

I looked back at Dimitri and my eyes lingered there, taking him in, committing him to memory. The devastated look on his face would burn in my mind for a long time. But that was just it. Dimitri was devastated, but he made no move towards me, he gave me no impression that he had changed his mind and that was because he hadn't. Hidden behind that expression, there was a smugness to him, a bittersweet reminder that he felt that this was how it should be. Like seeing me and Adrian together confirmed his point.

Dimitri was my past, and he had already said that he could never love me back the way I deserved.

I took a step backwards towards Adrian and felt his arms wrap around my shoulders.

"Yes, comrade?" I asked him, allowing the slight hint of defiance I felt leak into my words.

"Once Lord Ivashkov has clothed himself, we need to get going." He said blandly, turning away from me.

I turned to Adrian and smiled. "Adrian, will you get dressed, please?" I asked him sweetly.

Adrian smiled back and grabbed his clothes off the floor where we'd left them.

He retreated back to the bathroom and I walked up to Dimitri.

He looked up from the paperback western he was reading to give a small, forced smile. "Yes?" He asked, obviously seeing the questions on my face.

"You're not going to ask me about…" I trailed off.

"No. It's not my business." He shrugged.

"You don't care? You're not even going to fight for me?" I asked him.

Dimitri stood up to look me directly in the eyes. "No, Rose. I am not going to fight for you. I don't want to be with you, Adrian does. It is that simple."

Adrian stepped back out of the bathroom and I stepped away from Dimitri. "This isn't over." I hissed under my breath, as I started for the door.

Dimitri was behind me in an instant, his breath on my neck. "Yes _Roza_ it is. We can't ever go back." He hissed back.

I turned on him. I wasn't going to play by his rules anymore. "You're right Dimitri. We can't go back. And I don't think that I want to."

A flitter of shock crossed Dimitri's face before it went blank again.

And I had finally made my decision. I couldn't live in the past. I could only live in the now. And the now was Adrian. I would always love Dimitri, but he was right. The problem wasn't my love for him, it was his for me.

No, I wouldn't pine after Dimitri any longer. Even though it hurt, I made my choice.

The ride to Las Vegas took a long time.

Around nine in the morning, we pulled up to the MGM Grand, and I used the bond to lead me to Lissa.

As soon as I was in front of her door, it flung open and she enveloped me in a huge hug, that I couldn't help but return. "Oh Rose, I was so worried. I thought that you were killed or arrested." She cried, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"No, just kidnapped by tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum." I pointed to Adrian and Dimitri and they smiled at Lissa.

Lissa looked back and forth between Adrian and I and then smiled hugely. "Oh my God, the two of you love each other!" She said and I shot her a questioning look.

"How can you tell that?" I asked in surprise.

Adrian stepped towards me and draped his arm around my shoulders. "She can read it in our auras, little dhampir."

"Huh?"

"Each of us has a little piece of the other's auras embedded in our own. It's how Spirit users can tell if people have, er," he moved his mouth to my ear and whispered the next part. "Been with people."

I stared mouth open at Adrian for a moment before snapping my mouth shut. "I see." I stated, trying to make it seem like the fact that Lissa could read my personal business in my aura didn't bother me.

Of course, considering that I was prone to slip into Lissa's head while she was getting intimate with Christian, I probably shouldn't have felt so violated.

Lissa stepped back from the door and we all entered to find the room packed. Apparently, the MGM was pretty full, so all of us were going to have to camp out in one room.

I laid back in one of the beds and Adrian lay next to me. I let him wrap his arms around me. There was no use hiding that we were together completely now.

Lissa came and lay down on the opposite side of me and turned to look at me, excitement in her jade eyes.

"What are you so excited about?" I laughed at her. "Are you really that happy for Adrian and me."

Lissa frowned and I heard her thought in my head. _No, actually, but we'll talk about that later._

I gave her a puzzled look before speaking again. "So what is it?"

"I went to the bank. I have an address for one Olivia Brisnik, here in Las Vegas."

"What!" I jumped up in excitement.

"We found her. My dad's mistress," sadness flickered over her face as she said it, but she quickly replaced it with happiness once more. "We're going tonight to meet my long lost brother or sister."


	16. Chapter 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

We all managed to sleep, and once again, I had the dream with tarot cards. I felt like, besides the cards, there was something that the dream was trying to tell me. But I just couldn't figure it out.

The buzz of the alarm clock came as sort of a shock to all ten of us, and we all collectively shot up.

Shockingly, it didn't take a lot of time for all eleven of us to get ready. Before I knew it, we were all out front, waving down a taxi.

Eleven of us squeezed into two van-sized taxi cabs and gave the address to Olivia Brisnik's house.

In the end, we had the cab driver drop us off a block away from the house in front of a little coffee shop.

We figured it would be a little overwhelming if eleven strangers showed up at Olivia's front door, so it had been previously decided that only Lissa and I would go, the rest were going to sit back at the little coffee shop and wait for us to return.

As we approached the front door of the house that supposedly belonged to Lissa's dad's mistress, I could feel Lissa's anxiety.

She was excited at the though that she could have another family member behind that door. She was also praying that none of it was real because she did not want to know that the allegations against her father were true.

We reached the door, and Lissa moved to knock, but hesitated right before her fist hit. She turned to me, fear radiating off of her. "Rose, I'm scared." She told me.

I pulled Lissa to me, relishing the fact that I was comforting her. It had seemed like so long since I'd had to take care of her emotionally as well as physically. In that moment, I realized Liss didn't need me anymore. Not really, not like she had when we left the Academy.

"I know Liss." I told her, and then I had an epiphany that was going to alter both our worlds. "But we came all this way to do this, so let's do it. We're not scared, meek little kids anymore, Liss. We're adults, so let's act like adults and face our problems head on. Quit acting like a child!" I told her.

Lissa pulled a face. "God, sometimes you say the meanest things."

I shrugged and gave her a half-cocked grin. "I just say the things that you're too afraid to." I answered.

Lissa beamed back at me and pulled me to her again. "Oh, Rose. It's good to hear you say that."

This time when Lissa pulled away from me, she promptly turned and knocked on the door.

We stood there waiting for what felt like forever, before the door opened and a little blonde boy of about eight, with jade green eyes looked up at us. "Can I help you?" The little boy asked.

Lissa stared at that boy for a long moment, just drinking him in. I knew that she had seen the same thing that I had, and she confirmed that fact half a second later when she turned to me and said, "He looks just like Andre."

I looked back at the boy and smiled. "He looks like you too, Liss."

At that moment the boy's mother walked by and noticed the door was open, so she stopped to look at us.

Olivia Brisnik, was pretty, but not in the traditional way. She was tall and thin, like most Moroi, but she slouched, as if in defeat. Her long dark hair was limp, and her stormy blue eyes were sad, and as I stared into them, I saw something I recognized. The pain of losing someone you had truly loved.

She took in Lissa and her lips formed a surprised "O", before she began to speak. "Princess Vasilisa Dragomir, I thought you would have come a long time ago." She said, and she stepped sideways and let us in.

Olivia led us to the living room and gestured for us to sit down. Lissa and I sat in the couch across from the chair that Olivia sat herself in.

Lissa and Olivia stared at each other for a long moment, sizing each other up and I took the opportunity to look around the room.

There were pictures lining the walls and I paused as one in particular drew my gaze. I got up, walked over to the picture and yanked it off the wall. I studied the picture for a moment before drawing in a sharp breath and turning towards Olivia.

Olivia and Lissa both looked up at my gasp, and as Olivia noticed the picture her eyes darkened in loss.

I looked down at the picture, and then back up at Olivia. "How long were you with Eric Dragomir before he decided to marry Lissa's mom instead?" I asked.

Olivia looked down at her empty ring finger and then met Lissa's gaze. "I was engaged to your father for four years before he turned around and married your mother instead. It was eight years ago that I ran into your father at a casino, and the two of us got to talking and then, well." She inclined her head to her son and smiled sadly.

"I lost the love of my life twice, Vasilisa Dragomir. First to your mother, and then to death. And now you have come to take my only reminder of him." She looked down at her son, and then gestured to Lissa. "Oleg, meet your sister, Princess Vasilisa Dragomir. Princess, this is your brother Oleg Brisnik-Dragomir."

Lissa stared at Olivia for a long moment, emotions flying through her at a million miles a minute. Finally she drew in a deep breath and spoke. "I'm sorry for what you went through because of my family, Ms. Brisnik. It truly saddens me to hear that. But, I want you to know I did not come here to take your son. I have a proposition to make. He and I are the last of our name, and so we need to stick together. In exchange for moving to Court and living in my family estate there, I will see to it that both you and Oleg remain well take care of from here on out. Please, don't let our," she looked meaningfully at Oleg, "family name die out." Lissa begged.

Olivia watched Lissa in return and finally shrugged. "Princess, it would be my honor to help you keep your family name alive."

It took some time, but eventually we got Olivia to agree to come back to Court with us tonight.

We were walking back down the street, the coffee shop in clear view. We could even see the rest of our party waiting quietly, when a voice spoke that stopped my heart cold.

"Rosemarie Hathaway, step away from the Princess slowly, and know that you are surrounded."

I threw up my hands and backed away from Lissa, turning to face that voice.

Her red hair was cut into a short bob, and even though she was far shorter than me, the look of pure rage on her face made her seem much bigger than me. "Mom." I nodded to her, and then looked around to see the army of fifty or so Guardians flooding the area around me.

"NO!" Lissa screamed, as she realized just a little later than me, what was happening. I was caught.

Her scream alerted the others, and they all came running out. They skidded to a stop, however, once they realized what was going on.

I had no options. Even if I could possibly out run this many Guardians, it wouldn't do me any good, each one of the fifty Guardians held a gun, and they were all aiming them at me.

Dimitri, Eddie, and Mikhail all shot me a look that all but screamed that they would fight for me, but I wouldn't allow it.

I had already decided to turn myself in, back when Lissa and I were standing in front of Olivia's house. It was just happening sooner than I expected.

"No," I shouted to the three of them, and then I turned back to my mom. "I'll go quietly." I said. I turned back around and sunk to my knees, folding my arms behind my head, and my mom reached down and cuffed me.

I was shoved into the back of a big Black SUV, and the last thing I saw was Adrian right before they closed the door. "I love you Rose, I'll get you out of this,"

I smiled at him sadly. "I love you too, Adrian. But, I'm not going to get out of this." And then the door slammed in my face.


	17. Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The plane ride back to Pennsylvania was hauntingly close to the plane ride I took from Seattle to Montana when Dimitri had caught up to Lissa and I after our two years of illicit freedom.

It's funny how knowing you're going to die, like knowing without a doubt, brings things into focus for a person. Almost like I could read the blue-print for my significantly short life. In my head in went something like: Befriend Lissa, die in car crash in which Lissa brings me back, cause tons of trouble, bust out of the Academy with Lissa, live the best two years of my life with her. Enter Dimitri. Return to Academy. Cause more trouble. Learn respect. Love Dimitri. Lose Dimitri. Fight Strigoi. Save Dimitri. Love Adrian. Die.

And yet with every wrong turn I'd made, every mistake, I'd always had good intentions. Which reminded of me of a saying I'd once heard: the road to hell is paved in good intentions. And now? I was definitely in hell.

But I was resigned to it. I'd done all I could for my friends and I had no other ace to play. I'd run out of luck.

In Siberia, when Dimitri chased me and we were on the bridge, I had realized something, when death was inevitable, it was better to face it head on than run for the rest of my life.

Even then, I knew, I could have run. I could have run for years, but eventually Dimitri would have found me and my life would have been forfeit. If Dimitri the Strigoi had caught me again, I would die. I knew that, and he knew it when he reached down and stopped me from plunging to my death.

I was in a similar situation now. I could have run, and probably stayed undetected for a long time. But eventually, the running would have taken its toll on me and I would let my guard down and gotten caught.

So, no, running wasn't the option I was going to take. Bowing out gracefully was.

The others hadn't been questioned yet about their involvement in my escape, but I knew that it was imperative that I spoke to them before we returned back to Court. Of course, I had come up with a plan to keep them all out of trouble. I thought of it as kind of my final act. The coup de gras of my life as it were. Everyone would be hailed as heroes who brought in the dangerous criminal Rosemarie Hathaway, as opposed to co-conspirators in her escape. It was really quite brilliant actually.

The biggest problem I had was communicating and then convincing them that they should go along with it. Lucky for me, they were all on the same flight as me.

I turned to look back at Adrian hoping to catch his attention. It wasn't hard, he was staring at me pitifully and when he saw me look back at him, he perked up considerably.

I tried to gesture, which was hard considering that I was flanked on either side by Guardians and my hands were bound, that I was going to sleep. Adrian cocked his head at me questioningly, but before I could clarify any further the Guardians turned and gave me an evil glare and I promptly turned back around.

As I closed my eyes, I had to pray that Adrian would catch on.

He did, and half a second later I found both he and I back at the motel room in New Mexico. I looked around at the room and then shot Adrian an inquisitive look.

He shrugged and lit a cigarette. "It holds good memories." He said gesturing to the room around us. He inclined his head towards the cigarette, "you don't mind right? I'm a little stressed due to the fact that my girlfriend seems resigned to die." He stated bitterly, and I flinched.

"I don't mind Adrian. Listen I have a plan, and I need you to communicate it to everyone."

Adrian's head shot up, and a real glint of hope reflected in his eyes. He rushed forward and encased me in a hug. "I knew it! I knew that you would have a plan." Adrian stepped away from me and began to pace. "I don't think that we will be able to get you out at again at Court, though. Our best chance would be to try and lose them in the airport but…" Adrian trailed off as he caught the look in my eye. "You're plan has nothing to do with escaping, does it?" He asked, the hope melting from his face.

"No Adrian. My plan is not about escaping. It's about keeping you guys out of trouble."

Adrian rolled his eyes. "Of course it is, little dhampir. Worry less about us, and more about yourself."

I rolled my eyes. "I'll be fine, as long as I know that all of you will be protected."

Adrian moved to speak again, but I placed my hand on his lips and silenced him. "When we get back to Court, they are going to question you guys to the fullest extent. I want you to tell them that you came to me in my dreams and I told you that I was going to find Lissa's sibling in Las Vegas. You and Lissa came up with a plan to lure me back to Court, and Eddie, Mikhail, and Dimitri were waiting to arrest me when Lissa led me up to the coffee shop. Do you understand? You thought I was guilty, and you wanted to bring me to the justice I deserved." I told him.

Adrian stared at me in utter shock for a moment, took a drag of his cigarette, and then shook his head. "No. I won't let you go down alone."

I leaned up and kissed Adrian softly. "Please, Adrian. Think of it as my last wish. I want you all to live happy lives."

Adrian glared at me obstinately for a moment before his expression softened. He pulled me into him and rested his chin on the top of my head. "Oh, little dhampir. Anything to make you happy." He pulled away slightly to look down in my eyes. "I really would have asked you to marry me, you know? I wasn't completely joking when I said that to my parents." He told me seriously.

I laughed slightly, a tear coming to my eye. "I know Adrian. You know that I would have said no, though, right?"

Adrian wiped the tear from my eye and smiled back at me. "I know. You just aren't that type of girl."

Adrian melted away from me, and I sat up. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him whispering animatedly to the rest of the group.

I smiled, knowing that my wishes were being followed, and then leaned my head against the back of the chair.

I felt one of the Guardians move, and then another sit down. His scent over-powered me, and I smiled wider, once again thinking of how similar this plane ride was to the first I had taken with him.

My eyes flew open and I turned to look at him. "Comrade."

There was curiosity in his chocolate eyes as he spoke. "You really weren't going to fight all of them, were you?" He asked.

Words I had heard before, from his mouth, just in a different context. Before he had been curious if I really would have tried to take on all the Guardians that had come after us in Seattle. Now, he was saying that he had seen the defeat in me. He had seen me give up.

I turned to him, looking at him full on with the seriousness that had caused him to fall in love with me. "I would do anything to keep Lissa safe." And then I turned and faced ahead once more.


	18. Chapter 18

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Abe, unsurprisingly, came up with his own alibi, although, what it was, I may never know. What I do know, is that he was the first person who was permitted to see me after the Guardians had questioned me for twenty-two hours straight. After the twenty-two hours, they finally decided that I wasn't going to tell them any information on how I'd escaped, and that I wasn't going to admit to killing the Queen, and so they stuck me back into my cell and left me to rot.

When Abe stopped in front of my cell, I had never been so happy to see anyone.

He didn't have good news. Not that I expected him to. "You go to trial tomorrow." He told me.

"What are my chances that I will be found not-guilty?" I asked, my voice devoid of hope.

Abe grimaced. "Not good. Even with Vasilisa taking her place on the Council tomorrow, I still think that you are going to be found guilty."

I shrugged, I had expected that. "So, Lissa made it onto the Council huh?" I asked.

"Yes, she did." Abe's hand moved to his chin, and he seemed to mull something over for a moment. "Rose, there is rumor that they are going to make her the Queen." He told me.

"Yeah, I heard that one already. That was why I didn't want her to come with us."

"Its more than that now, Rose. There is a good possibility that she will be Queen," he started, and I didn't miss the slight catch in his voice.

"And?" I asked, knowing that I probably wouldn't like what he said next.

"They're using tomorrow's trial to test her. To see if she can rule with out bias. They know that the two of you are close. But, if she can manage to see past that and convict you, they will believe her to be worthy of being Queen."

I swallowed. "So Lissa needs to tell the Court that I am guilty in order to be Queen."

Only one thought had kept me okay with the fact that I was going to die a traitor's death. It was the assurance that at the very least, Lissa would stand before the Court, and defend me. And she would, even if she knew that it would cost her the throne.

I had been raised to do what was best for Lissa, even if it was illogical, insane, deadly. Lissa was my life, and doing what was best for her is what had always driven me to do what I'd done. I may have slipped up a couple of times lately, but I wouldn't fail this time. Lissa was going to be queen, even if I had to stand up tomorrow and declare myself guilty.

Abe broke into my silent conversation. "Rose, if they find you guilty you will die tomorrow." I already figured that, of course, so it didn't come as much of a shock.

I turned to Abe, and smiled weakly. "Thanks for letting me know." A thought came to my head at that moment. "Hey, Abe? Can you do something for me?"

"If I can Rose." He answered.

"Can you find a way to get a woman in here? Her name is Rhonda, and she claims to be a fortune-teller. I need her to come in and bring her tarot deck. I have a couple of questions for her. And then, later tonight I need to see Lissa."

Abe nodded. "I'll see what I can do."

An hour later, Abe delivered, and Ambrose's Aunt Rhonda walked up to the cell.

"Rose," she said as she approached. Her face was calm, as though she knew I would summon her eventually.

"Rhonda, I need you to do a reading for me. Just three cards." I told her.

She didn't look surprised. Instead, she sat down in front of my cell and handed the deck to me. "Shuffle," she said and I did as directed then handed the deck back to her.

She flipped three cards, and I wasn't surprised. The Wheel of Fortune, Justice, and Death all glared up at me.

My face must have given away the fact that I had known these cards were going to pop up, because Rhonda looked up at me and raised an eyebrow. "Did you expect this?" She asked.

I sighed. "Honestly, Rhonda, I did. I called you up here so that you could tell me what they meant."

Rhonda looked back down and pointed at the first card, "The Wheel of Fortune. It represents life, it's journeys, it's lessons being taught. It indicates that everything comes full circle, there is no beginning, no end, it just continues to rotate." She paused to let this sink in. "Justice. It is a pretty straight-forward, justice comes to those who deserve it." Finally, she looked down at the last card and smiled. "Death. More than anything, it is a deceiving card. It does not necessarily mean death. But it does represent an end."

I nodded, not really sure what the cards meant in regards for me, but glad that I got to know what they signified.

Rhonda smiled kindly at me again. "Your fate is sealed, Rosemarie Hathaway."

"I knew you were going to say that." I shrugged.

"So, you believe in the cards now?" She asked, obviously remembering that I was kind of a skeptic when it came to this kind of stuff.

I smiled back at her. "Well, it's kind of nice to know what I am up against."

Rhonda laughed. "Your self Rose. That is what the cards have always said about you. You're greatest ally and your greatest enemy are one in the same. Your self." With that, Rhonda stood up and walked away.

Her departing words weren't really helpful, but they did leave something for me to think about until Lissa showed up about two hours later.

She looked tired, and sad. It pained me to see her like this, because I knew it was all because of me. "Cheer up, Liss. You look like someone just died." I joked, probably in poor taste.

Lissa actually stamped her foot in indignation. "That is not funny Rosemarie Hathaway!" She exclaimed.

I threw my hands up and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. Sorry." I told her.

Lissa came up to the bars and sat down, and I followed her action. She reached through the bars and grabbed my hand and I squeezed back. And then she erupted into tears.

"Oh, Rose. You're the one who is facing death tomorrow, and yet here you are comforting me. It's not right. I should be comforting you." She sobbed.

"Liss, it's okay."

Lissa turned to me, her long blond hair falling into her face. "No, Rose. It's not. You're all I know, and after tomorrow…" she trailed off. We both knew what she was saying. I would die tomorrow, neither one of us had any doubt that the Council would find me guilty. "I just wish there was something I could do." It was the opening I had been waiting for, and I took it graciously.

"There is Liss." Lissa's eyes flickered with hope, just like Adrian's had on the plane. "I need you to do something for me tomorrow, okay?"

Lissa shook her head vigorously. "Anything Rose."

"I want you to stand up in Court tomorrow and tell the Council that you believe I am guilty."

Any vestige of hope died from her eyes. "No."

I gave her a look that I hoped displayed that I meant business. "Liss, this is my dying wish. Will you really deny me this? Stand up and tell them I am guilty."

Lissa stared at me for a long time, her face setting into a hard angry mask. "Fine." She said bitterly. "But Rose, I will never forgive you for this." She said, and then she got up and walked away.


	19. Chapter 19

CHAPTER NINETEEN

At about six a.m, right as everyone was going to sleep, I made my final request. I turned to Mikhail, who would be watching me, and asked if I could go outside for a few moments to watch the sunrise.

Mikhail, Eddie, and Dimitri had been hailed as heroes, as it were. All thanks to my idea. No one even really questioned it that hard, they all just had that much faith in the integrity of the three of them.

Mikhail, who had offered many times to help me escape again, understood why I would want to see it. As a dhampir, I enjoyed the sun, but seldom got to see it because we adjusted our schedules to fit those of the Moroi. He knew as well as I, that this would be my last chance to see the sun rise.

And seeing as I had refused his offer to help me escape, he knew that I was legitimately just trying to see the sunrise.

Mikhail smiled at me, and walked up the stairs to go speak to the Guard on duty. At the present moment Mikhail was the only one watching me.

A few minutes later, I heard someone come back down the stairs, but it was not Mikhail.

"Comrade." I nodded to him.

Dimitri walked up to me and unlocked the cell. I noticed that he had looked down the whole time but as I stepped out his head flew up and he met my eyes. "What's your plan?" He whispered softly. It was the same thing, everyone expected me to pull off something devious and fantastical. It wasn't going to happen.

I smiled at him. "I just want to see the sunrise, Dimitri."

Dimitri's face fell, and he resumed staring at the ground. "Alright," he said, and he grabbed me by the hand and led me down the opposite way from the stairs.

We walked through a back door, and I found myself in a little courtyard. It was fenced off, but well maintained, with a stone walkway ending in granite bench. On either side of the walkway there were gardens, filled with tons of flowers, and small trees.

I sat down on the bench and stared towards the horizon, waiting for the sunrise. Dimitri sat next to me, and put his arm around my shoulder.

The horizon split from a solid chunk of black night, into pink and gold light, and I could just see the top of the sun when I turned to Dimitri. "Did you miss it when you were Strigoi?" I asked.

Dimitri wasn't staring at the sunrise, though, he was staring unblinkingly at me. "Not as much as I missed you." He told me.

"Well, it's good that you don't love me then. This won't be as bad for you." My voice held no accusation, no hurt. I was simply stating a fact.

Dimitri looked as though I'd slapped him. "Rose, I have a confession to make."

I punched him lightly. "Shouldn't I be the one confessing? I'm the one dying tomorrow." Again, the joke was probably in poor taste.

"Rose, that's not funny. And I'm serious, I have to tell you the truth."

I shrank down a little under the intensity of his stare. "Okay, what is it?" I asked.

"I lied to you. Lied when I said that I couldn't love you anymore. Even when I was strigoi, you were all I thought about. I said the things I did, because I was ashamed of myself for what I put you through. I love you now, and I'll love you forever, _Roza_." He told me, and then he kissed me.

I didn't pull away, maybe because of shock. I don't know. Maybe it was because it felt right, like I was supposed to kiss him.

He pulled away from me and looked down at me. "I just thought that you should know that."

I smiled. "I love you too, Dimitri. And thank-you for telling me that, but it doesn't change anything. Knowing doesn't change anything, it just makes the outcome harder to deal with."

"You won't die, tomorrow. I won't-," he began, but I shook my head.

"No, comrade. No more schemes, no more tricks. Tomorrow, I die."

I looked back at the sunrise, and felt the truth of my words sink in. Tomorrow, I would die.

This would be my last sunrise. Dimitri's kiss my last kiss. Tomorrow, I would wake-up, be found guilty of murder, and then I would die.

Dimitri held me, as I cried, and the sun rose.


	20. Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

I didn't go to sleep that night. It just seemed like a waste of what life I had left. I would be sleeping soon enough.

So I sat up in my cell. I talked to Dimitri, about everything. The day he met me. Our practice sessions. The night in the cabin before he was turned. Russia. Everything.

The sound of his voice pounded through my brain all night. It was a lovely voice. And then, finally, seven p.m came, and he stood up.

"It's time, Rose. Are you ready?" He asked, unlocking my cell.

I choked down a deep breath and then looked up at him, holding my arms out so that he could cuff my wrists. I wasn't going to cower. I had shed my tears last night. I had been weak while Dimitri comforted me. Now it was time to be strong. There would be no tears from me today. It was time to make sure that Lissa would be queen.

"If you don't have something you'd die for, than you have nothing to live for." I told him.

Dimitri nodded. He understood. It was what had made us love each other in the first place.

Dimitri placed a hand on the small of my back and led me up the stairs. "I would have died for you." He whispered in my ear.

After that, I had to remind myself to keep face.

Court was empty. Everyone seemed to be inside the courtroom, waiting to see the diabolical Rose Hathaway found guilty.

As I entered, I was taken aback. The room was full to way past capacity. Everyone really was here. All the seats were filled, and people spilled out into the aisle ways.

Not all were against me, though. A good number of people wore T-shirts that said things like 'free rose!' and 'she's innocent!" I was glad for those people, they made me smile a little.

I took my place behind the defendants stand, looked over at Abe, who was my lawyer. "You got any brilliant ideas, old man?" I asked him.

"Not a one." He answered.

I shrugged. I was a dead man walking anyway.

Nathan Ivashkov was acting as judge. Of course, that would be just my luck.

He glared down at me from the dais, and I could feel Lissa's anger at what I had asked her to do.

I didn't have time to think about it, my trial was beginning.

"Rosemarie Hathaway, you are on trial for the murder of the Royal Queen, Tatiana Ivashkov. How do you plea?" She asked.

I glanced at Abe and then back at Nathan. "Not guilty, Lord Ivashkov." I told him.

For the next two hours I watched them present evidence against me, and even I could tell their case was rock-solid. They had even twisted the words that I had used to defend myself in the hearing, saying that I probably did it so obviously because I thought that I would get away by pointing out how obvious it was.

Finally, they wrapped up, and Nathan turned to Abe. "Are you ready to present your case for the defense?" He asked. Abe nodded and stood up.

"Rose was framed. Just look at this girl? Isn't she the reason that you all passed the age-decree in the first place? And now, you are all willing to denounce her a murderer." Abe took a step and walked towards the dais. "No, she did not care for Tatiana. But there were a lot of us who did not care for her. Rose has a strong sense of responsibility and duty. No matter her personal feelings, she always puts protecting Moroi before herself."

And then I watched for another hour while Dimitri, Kirova, my mother, Eddie, Mikhail, and countless others got up and talked about how loyal I was to the Moroi people.

When the Abe finished, Nathan turned to the Council. "You have heard a lot of evidence against this girl here today, as well as a lot of praise. This is an unfortunate case, but it is now time to vote."

Suddenly Abe's hand shot up. "Before you vote, the defense would like to take a small recess."

Nathan looked surprised for a moment, but then waved his hand. "Very well. Take a fifteen minute recess." He stated.

I stood up and turned around to look at the mob of people who had begun to shuffle around.

Adrian walked up to me, his eyes slightly hysterical. "I have a plan Rose. Don't worry. Just promise me that you will find my Aunt's killer." He told me, and then he turned and walked out of the doors.

Before I could respond he bent forward and kissed me.

I stayed silent for the rest of the fifteen minutes, and then finally, he called the trial back to order.

After everyone had taken their seats, he turned to the Council. "Vote now."

One after another, the Council members stood up and stated "guilty."

Lissa stood last and looked down on me. Her face was still angry, but she smiled just a little as she said the final condemning word. "Guilty."

Nathan turned to me, "Rose Hathaway, you have been found guilty of the murder of the Queen. Your sentence, death."

There was silence in the courtroom while people processed.

The silence was shattered by the sound of the courtroom doors being slammed open. "Wait!" Shouted Adrian. "I did it!"

There was a collective intake of breath, and then a voice behind Adrian laughed. "No, Lord Ivashkov. I, well, Ambrose, did it, because I compelled him to.

And then Victor Dashkov stepped into the courtroom.

And all hell broke loose.


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: Sorry about taking so long for this chapter, I usually try to crank them out as fast as I can, But I spent the whole day at the hospital =( (Damned Rusty nails and tetanus shots!) I spent twelve hours sitting in the emergency, but I have been itching to write this chapter all day!

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Victor's sudden appearance had everyone in a panic. Guardians moved to him. But they hadn't noticed what I had. As soon as he walked into the room, nausea rolled over me and that could only indicate one thing.

There were strigoi in Court, and something about the way Victor looked made me believe that he was one of them

Even worse was his proximity to Adrian.

As the Guardians moved closer to him, I saw his eyes flicker to Adrian, and a cruel smile spread across his lips.

"Stop!" I yelled to the Guardians. "He'll kill Adrian!"

The guardians paused, just long enough to notice what I already had. "He's gone Strigoi!" One person shouted. Yeah, no shit Sherlock.

Adrian spun around just in time for Victor to grab him by the shirt and launch him to the wall on the opposite side of the room. He hit the wall with a sickening thud and then slunk down, gathering in a heap on the floor and remaining there unmoving.

I moved towards Adrian, wanting to make sure he was okay. And if he wasn't, well, Victor Dashkov would be a dead man. No one beats up on my boyfriends, except maybe me.

But what happened next stopped me cold and had me backing up towards Lissa.

"No one do anything, there are too many of them to try and fight n such packed quarters." My mom stood up from her seat and directed.

Because, as if summoned by some imaginary signal, strigoi filled the room. And then the homeless man from the street in New Orleans.

Only this time, standing next to Victor, I recognized him. It was Robert Doru. It suddenly made sense how he would have recognized me on the street. Besides seeing my aura, and according to Adrian everyone had their very own distinct aura, he would have recognized me because we had met.

Whatever compulsion charm he had used to disguise himself, it wasn't very good. At least not as good as the ones Lissa made for me.

At the moment, his homeless man was flickering in and out, every few seconds revealing his true self.

He finally gave up on the charm completely, pulling a small ring off of his finger. He wasn't strigoi, and I had a hunch about Victor's motives.

He wanted change, that was why he had tried to kidnap Lissa in the first place. He wanted to stay alive so that he could become King and start a political movement that would rock the very foundations of the world we lived in. His ideas weren't even half bad, he wanted Moroi to fight alongside dhampirs. If it wasn't for the fact that he was a psycho I would have been the first one on that band wagon. Especially seeing as there had been a couple of times where Christian using his fire element had helped me against Strigoi.

For change to happen, he needed followers, and there weren't many Moroi or dhampirs willing to follow him at the present moment. He had probably gone strigoi to gain troops, and as soon as he got what he wanted, he probably planned to have Robert "save" him.

Believing myself to be correct in my assumptions, I only needed to know one more thing before I opened up a can of Rose whoop ass and went buck wild on the masses of strigoi filling the Courtroom. And that was, what now? What was Victor's next move?

Lissa was the one to speak up. "Victor, what have you done?" She asked from up on the dais. My eyes flashed to her, and for a moment I could see why Dimitri was so in awe of her. Standing down, looking at Victor with pity in her eyes, I could very well see her being hailed a Saint.

Victor turned his cool gaze towards Lissa too, revealing a pretty scary set of strigoi fangs. "What have I done? I've gone to extreme lengths to protect us from harm. It was I who sent word of your illegitimate brother or sister to Queen Tatiana. Not to help you, my dear, but to lure away her most trusted companion. I knew she would send Ambrose to retrieve those files, and once he showed up, I compelled him into finding a way to steal Rose's stake and use it to kill the Queen. I thought that it would be like killing two birds with one stone: Tatiana would be gone, and so would Rose, leaving me able to get to you."

"Me? What do you need me for? You have Robert." Through the bond, I could feel Lissa's fear, but her face remained relaxed, as did her voice.

"Lissa, my dear, do you honestly believe that Robert can be of any use? His mind has become so obtuse that he will be of no use to me, other than as a companion. You. You are young. You will be able to bring me back, and then you will be able to cure me while I rule as the King. We will make the world safe for Moroi, as well as make our existence known to the humans. We live in the glory that is our right. It is for the benefit of all." He said.

This time, maybe, I should have really kept my mouth shut. But being me, I had to come up with some smart ass remark. "For the Greater Good right? How very Harry Potter of you."

Victor turned to me. "Rose, this has nothing to do with you. This is between Lissa and I."

"Like hell it doesn't! If it concerns Lissa, it concerns me." I folded my arms across my chest and stared at him.

Victor didn't bother to reply to my statement. Instead he just glanced back at the doors and shouted, "bring them in."

A few seconds later Ambrose, Jesse Zeklos, and another Royal, Iliya Ivashkov (one of Adrian's distant cousins) were dragged into the room by a group of strigoi.

Ambrose looked up at me, sadness in his eyes. "Rose, I stole your stake from you as you got the reading from Aunt Rhonda. I'm sorry." He said to me, right before Victor commanded the strigoi to kill their three captives.

It was like reliving Mason's death. The strigoi snapped all their necks in a matter of seconds.

It may have been the final straw for me. I didn't even like or know two out of the three who were just senselessly murdered, but that didn't change the fact that they shouldn't have died.

I leapt forward towards Victor, but was quickly yanked back. I spun around to face my captor, and then had to blink back in shock as I saw that it was Dimitri. He was giving me a look that all but screamed for me to wait.

I could never disobey an order from Dimitri.

Victor turned back to his army of strigoi. "Go my children, wait at the gates for me." Most of the strigoi looked disappointed, but they all did as they were commanded.

Victor turned back to the Council. "I am not an unfair man. The three who have died, well, their deaths are a tragedy. But do not let them die in vain. One night. I will give you one night to join me. After that, we will have a war. Many more will die if it gets to that." Victor nodded to the Council and then began to back out the door.

He stopped abruptly, looked up at Lissa, and said something that froze her in fear. "Another condition, the Princess must be given to me as my own personal healer." He turned and followed the remaining strigoi out the door.

I lied when I said that watching the three innocent victims die had been the last straw. Nope, hearing him use Lissa as leverage, that was the final fucking straw. "You won't ever get near her! I. Won't. Let. You." I spit from between clenched teeth.

Victor laughed. "You won't be around to stop it." He said.

That stopped any reply I might have had, while I thought over what he meant. Dimitri, who was still standing behind me, he also got the meaning way before I did.

I was focused on Victor, so I didn't notice Robert come at me from the side with the stake that he intended to use to kill me. My stake, in fact.

Dimitri noticed, and he spun me away from Robert's strike, which was surprisingly quick and efficient, it would have easily struck me in the heart.

Dimitri spun me away, and spun himself into the strike.

The stake planted into Dimitri's chest, and then the two of us slunk to the ground.

**A/N:**

**If you are irate, just remember, things are not always as they seem.**


	22. Chapter 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

My stake was planted firmly in Dimitri's chest, and Robert, having no other weapon, had fled alongside Victor.

The stake was a few inches below his heart, but Dimitri was in no way okay. He was losing blood at a tremendous rate, and as I sat up to cradle him in my lap, I couldn't help but prepare for the worst.

I leaned down and whispered to him. "Dimitri, please, don't die. Don't die. I love you, please don't die."

He smiled up at me weakly, without opening his eyes. His breathing was coming in short rasps and then I felt his body go limp. Dimitri was dead.

There was an inhuman sound coming from somewhere. Someone screaming "No," so loud that the word itself seemed to echo in the suddenly quiet courtroom. After a while the scream dulled into a pitiful choking sob.

I whipped my head around wildly, trying to figure out where it was coming from. It seemed to me that no one was speaking at all, they were just staring in shock at the four lifeless bodies around us.

I heard Lissa trying to scuffle up towards us. Her lips were moving but I couldn't hear the sound coming from her. It seemed to me that she was trying to get to Dimitri, but Christian was holding her back. Christian looked helpless and confused. He had grabbed her during the fight, and I don't think it occurred to him that the fight was over.

Lissa turned and screamed at him again, and this time, I heard what she said. "Let me go. I could heal him! I could heal him!"

It wasn't until Abe came up and pulled me out from underneath Dimitri, quietly shushing me as he did so, that I realized that the noise was coming from me. As had the screaming.

I fought against Abe, I didn't want to be pulled away from Dimitri. So instead of allowing Abe to help me to my feet, I flung back down and formed a shield over Dimitri's body. Abe moved forward again, as had several others, but I lifted my head up and something akin to a growl escaped my lips.

"Stay the fuck away from us." My words held the promise of a threat, if anyone took a step closer I would snap.

Abe crouched down slowly so that we were eye level. "You need to back away from him, Rose."

I laid my head back down on his chest and stared at the stake. "I need to protect him." I whispered.

"Rose, you can't help him now. He is dead." Abe told me in a stern voice.

"No, no, no, no, no! Lissa can heal him. She can save him, just like she saved me." I turned to Lissa and met her teary gaze with my own.

I don't know what she saw there. Desperation maybe? Despair? My heart-breaking into thousands of tiny pieces. As it was, her face was contorted with its own pain, she looked like a mother who had just lost her only child.

She knelt down beside me. She put her hand on his chest and then I felt the magic begin to well up inside her.

Everything would be okay once Lissa healed him. He would be okay.

I could just feel the first pull of the magic when Christian spoke up. "Lissa, bringing him back will bond him to you. And if we learned anything from Avery Lazar, it is that a spirit user being bonded to more than one person is bad news."

Lissa shook her head. "It doesn't matter. This is important to Rose. It's important to me, too. I am going to do it." I smiled in smug satisfaction.

Lissa would save him. Lissa would bring him back. He would become bound to her, and it would make her go crazy.

The thought hit me like a train. Lissa, the single most important person in my life, and I was going to hurt her once again for my own selfish reasons.

I couldn't do it. "Lissa, back away from him." I told her.

Lissa looked at me in concern. Her hands were covered in blood, the tips of her hair dipped red from where it had hung onto Dimitri's chest. There was a slightly manic look in her eyes, almost as if she wasn't completely in control now. Spirit consumed her, compelled her to reach out to Dimitri. "No Rose! I need to do this. He is important to us." For a second, Lissa pulled me into her head and I got a good look at myself. I was covered in blood, Dimitri's blood. There was a haunting, frantic look in my eyes, my expression slightly blank. I had not yet recovered from the shock. My face was chalk white, where it wasn't covered with red. And I was shaking uncontrollably, my lips blue and quivering. Tears streaks cut trails through the blood on my cheeks. In a nutshell, I looked deranged. It was enough to get me to snap into reality. This would hurt Lissa.

A lump formed in the back of my throat. One that I was unable to swallow back. But I had to. I had to say the words that would get Lissa to stop. "Liss, you're more important. I won't allow you to go crazy because of him." It pained me to say it, but it was true. I could almost feel the darkness of spirit churning inside Lissa, and as a result I was feeling ill.

I looked down at Dimitri again, tears falling freely down my face. After everything we had been through, this was how it would end. The term unfair came to mind.

Lissa moved towards him, her palms outstretched and I yanked him away from her.

It was about that time that Adrian crawled over, nursing what looked like a pretty wicked broken arm. "Move." He directed at Lissa.

My eyes flickered to Adrian. "Are you okay?" I choked out.

Adrian glanced at me. "Yeah, I'm fine. My arm is probably broken, but I'll have Lissa heal it later. Hand him to me." I stared at him in shock, he must have hit his head pretty hard if he thought I was just going to hand Dimitri over to him.

Lissa peered at Adrian. "What are you going to do?" She asked.

Adrian rolled his eyes and gestured for me to hand over Dimitri, again.

"No." I told him, I hadn't actually caught on to what was happening yet.

Adrian licked his lips and tried again. "Rose, I am going to try to heal him, but you need to give him to me."


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: I am so sorry for not posting as often. I have just been slammed all of the sudden. But as penance, I will post at least one more chapter today!

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Maybe I was going a little nuts, but I actually thought I heard Adrian say he was going to try to save Dimitri, and I laughed. "Adrian, you can barely heal minor injuries, you expect me to believe that you can bring Dimitri back from the dead?"

Adrian looked hurt for a moment before he wiped his face blank of emotion. "I said I would try. I'm not making any guarantees. But I will try."

"Adrian, it's not possible. There is no way that you have developed that level of spirit yet."

Adrian was about to reply, but Lissa cut him off. "Look, you only have a small window of opportunity to help him before it's too late. So if you want to do this, you better just do it." She told him. She paused for a moment and then spoke again. "Adrian, if you do this, it will change everything. The two of you will be bound forever. Are you sure that you're willing to make that sacrifice?"

Adrian didn't even pause to think before he answered. "I have to do this. I have to at least try."

"Why?" I asked, unable to keep the shock from my voice. "You didn't even like him."

Adrian's eyes met mine, and there was a sort of sad determination there. "Rose, I was unconscious for five minutes. When I came to, I heard you scream in such pain and misery that I thought you were dying. And then I saw him, and it all became clear to me. I will try to bring him back for you Rose, because he matters to you, and you matter to me."

Behind his bravado, I could see what he was really saying. Once again, I had made a choice. I chose to protect Dimitri instead of going to Adrian, which is what I should have done. If he was resentful of that choice, he wasn't letting on. Adrian just wanted me to be happy.

Reluctantly, I moved Dimitri so that he was lying in front of Adrian. Adrian looked down at Dimitri, his lips pursed together as if he was going over the best way to do this in his head. Finally, he sighed. "Maybe you should pull the stake out of his chest. I don't think that I can heal him with a piece of silver stuck in his chest."

My face went even whiter than it already was as I realized that he made a good point. It didn't mean that I liked the idea of pulling a stake out of the chest of the love of my life.

Lissa must have read the apprehension on my face because her hand moved towards the stake. The movement was enough to make me snap to attention. If anyone was going to do it, it would be me. "No, Liss. Let me do it." I told her, and I reached out and grabbed the handle of the stake.

The next part was a little difficult. I had to close my eyes, because I didn't want to see the resulting gaping hole that removing the stake would cause.

I gripped it a little tighter, counted to three, and then yanked as hard as I could. The stake came out with a soft pop followed by a sick sounding gurgle, and I stumbled backwards from the force I used.

I kept my eyes squeezed shut, and spoke softly. "Tell me when you've covered the hole."

"Adrian has got his hands covering it." Lissa replied, and I sat up and opened my eyes.

I wasn't sure if Adrian had started trying yet. It certainly didn't look like he was trying, at least not at first. As I focused more on what was happening though, I could see that Adrian was actually using a tremendous amount of effort trying to bring Dimitri back.

His eyebrows were furrowed in concentration. Little beads of sweat were forming at his hairline, and his face had gone pale. By the way he looked, I could tell that he was definitely tapped into his spirit. But nothing was happening.

Adrian looked up at Lissa, his eyes slightly panicked. "How did you do it? What am I doing wrong?" He asked her.

The look on Lissa's face mirrored Adrian's. Hell, it was probably the same look that was on my face. Despite my earlier doubt, I had actually been ridiculous enough to believe that Adrian could pull off the impossible and bring back Dimitri.

Lissa shook her head slightly. "I don't know Adrian, I don't remember what I did. I just remember being desperate as I held Rose. I begged her not to go. And then she breathed and I knew she was going to be okay."

Adrian looked plenty desperate to me, but apparently it wasn't enough to save Dimitri.

The whole situation hardly seemed fair. After everything I had done, everything I had gone through to get Dimitri back, and now he was dead. I didn't want to accept that this was it. But I knew it was. Dimitri wouldn't be returning.

And if I didn't stop Adrian, the exertion he was putting forth attempting to help Dimitri was going to kill him, too. I put a hand on his shoulder and shook my head. "It's okay Adrian, you did the best you could. Just stop before you hurt yourself." I told him.

Adrian turned his wild eyed gaze on me, and I shrank back slightly from the look on his face. "No! I am going to do this." He exclaimed, and then he removed his hands from Dimitri chest and picked him up, cradling Dimitri to his chest. I got a good look at the hole in Dimitri's chest when Adrian removed his hands, and I winced.

I had never seen Adrian so determined. And as I watched him, slightly rocking Dimitri, something changed about him. He seemed to glow slightly, almost as if he was on fire.

Still, Dimitri made no move. Adrian clutched Dimitri for dear life, and then in an ear splitting cry of anguish he screamed, the sound seeming amplified as though it was coming from God himself. "You stupid Russian, open your eyes! Do it because Rose need you!"

The fiery glow coming from Adrian seemed to split at that moment, encompassing Dimitri as well, and lighting up the room so bright that I had to shield my eyes from it.

After a few moments, the light dimmed and Adrian slumped forward breathing heavily. He let go of Dimitri and Dimitri's body slid to the floor.

I moved towards Adrian, wanting to comfort him, thinking that he had failed. And then Lissa gasped and I looked down at Dimitri and gasped as well.

Dimitri's eyes had fluttered open, and he was breathing. Adrian had managed the impossible.


	24. Chapter 24

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

There was a collective intake of shocked breath from the entire courtroom as Dimitri sat up with a pained groan, and I fell to my knees beside him and Adrian and pulled them into me. No one had ever seen anyone brought back from the dead before, at least not like this.

I kissed Adrian on the cheek. "You did it, you saved him." I whispered to him.

Adrian was still breathing heavily, but it didn't stop him from chuckling slightly. "And you Rose. It was when I said your name that I felt him come back." He whispered back.

I turned to Dimitri and looked at him, observing him carefully for the first time since I realized that he was alive. I wanted to say something, anything, but I couldn't formulate the words I needed. All I could do was stare at Dimitri.

Finally, Dimitri broke the silence. "I feel like I just died." He said in confusion.

"You did." Adrian responded and I shot him a dirty look.

Dimitri was still confused and he looked over at Lissa and raised an eyebrow. "I guess this is your doing then." And then he gasped. "No." His eyes moved to Adrian and his expression became unreadable. "This can not be happening." He said in exasperation.

Adrian grinned, slightly amused and slightly bitter looking. "Oh yeah it is. Talk about irony."

Apparently there was some kind of internal conversation going on between the two of them, and I desperately wanted to be in on it. "How did he figure out that it was you who saved him?"

Adrian rolled his eyes. "Well, if he was smart he probably would have figured it out by noticing the fact that the three of us are all huddled together on the floor. But since that is seemingly not the case, he probably heard it when I thought in my head, 'no you idiot, I saved you.'"

Dimitri's eyes narrowed. "I would have figured it out in a minute. I did just come back from the dead you know?" He stated defensively.

The whole conversation was just so ridiculous and unlike either of them that I couldn't refrain from laughing.

Both Adrian and Dimitri turned to me. "What's so funny?" They asked at the same time and then both of them groaned.

Adrian glanced over at Dimitri quickly. "Just because you can hear what I am thinking, doesn't mean that you need to speak it." He snapped.

Dimitri glared back at Adrian and then turned to me. I was still laughing uncontrollably. Maybe it was the situation that had me crying in laughter, or maybe it was just the relief that Dimitri was okay.

"What's so funny, Rose?" He asked, not bothering to respond to Adrian.

I laughed for a few more minutes before finally taking a deep breath. "The two of you are acting like an old married couple. You're completely asinine."

Dimitri and Adrian stared at me with twin masks of disbelief and then they both busted out in laughter as well.

After a few more seconds, we all calmed down and Dimitri looked at Adrian. "Thank-you, for saving me. And for-," he started, but Adrian shot him a strange look and he immediately quieted himself.

"Don't worry about it." Adrian stood and offered a hand to Dimitri and I followed them. "Well, you crazy kid, it looks like the two of us are going to be getting pretty close." He told him.

Dimitri chuckled. "I guess so."

It was at about this time that Abe decided to speak up. "Umm… not to interrupt your little reunion, but we have a major problem to address. Victor is going to declare war on us if we don't give him what he wants." In all the distress of watching Dimitri nearly die for good, I had kind of forgotten about Victor's threat. At Abe's reminder, however, I was immediately enraged once more.

I turned to look at the Council, who were still staring in shock at us. "Permission to speak to the Council?" I asked.

Nathan Ivashkov, who looked seriously warn out, waved a hand at me. "Go ahead."

I clasped my hands behind my back and tried to look fierce and in control. "First, is it safe to assume that I have been found not guilty?" I asked.

Nathan waved his hand in response. "Obviously." He answered, kind of rudely.

"Good." I turned away from the Council to look at the crowd of people. "Victor Dashkov has threatened our safety. He has brought death and fear right to the very heart of our government. He wants to destroy that which we have worked so hard to achieve, and he has gone to extremes to accomplish his goals."

I began pacing as I thought my words over in my head. "He must be stopped. His ideas are extreme, his actions even more so."

"But Guardians alone will not be enough to face the army that he has built. Victor is cunning and intelligent. The strigoi we saw here today, well, I can almost guarantee that there are at least a hundred more working for him."

At this point Nathan cut into my thought process. "Miss Hathaway," he began, but Lissa turned on him.

"It's Guardian Hathaway, Lord Ivashkov." She said coldly.

Nathan's jaw tightened, but when he spoke again, he made the correction. "Guardian Hathaway, that is impossible. It is common knowledge that strigoi do not band together in groups. Even the attack on St. Vladimir's Academy was deemed unusual." He told me.

I turned to look meaningfully at Dimitri. "Guardian Belikov, as someone who has experience actually being strigoi, is it really that uncommon for them to work together?" I asked.

Dimitri didn't even hesitate. "No. The strigoi are learning that it is a lot easier to accomplish the goals that they want accomplished if they band together. When I was leading strigoi, it was not uncommon for me to have at least fifty people at my beck and call. Someone like Victor, he may very well be able to command an army of strigoi that could destroy us all. Especially if he is presenting them with something that they want more than anything, a chance to annihilate the Moroi. And if the government falls tomorrow night, they will have no problem doing just that."

Nathan rolled his eyes. "Get to your point Guardian Hathaway."

"My point is, there are not enough Guardians here to destroy the army that Victor has assembled, and not enough time to get Guardians here as back-up. What I am about to propose may seem outrageous, but hear me out. I think that we may have a chance if Moroi fought alongside us. Fire users are extremely useful, but anyone willing to help should be allowed to come."

The room broke into chaos at the moment. Some people were advocating for me, while others were saying that my idea was the most absurd thing that they had ever heard.

I tried to speak again, but no one was listening.

Finally, my mother's voice rang out. "Quiet!" She shouted and immediately everyone fell silent. "What Rose has suggested is not so outlandish. At St. Vladimir's, when the strigoi broke the wards and attacked, Moroi helped us. She is not asking everyone to help. If you don't want to, don't. If you do then meet us in an hour at the Guardian's Building where we will discuss strategy."

Most people remained quiet under my mom's authoritative glare. In fact, it was only Nathan who began to stand up and protest, but he was silenced by a very unlikely source.

His wife Daniella stood up and looked at him. "Enough Nathan. What Guardian Hathaway has proposed poses no threat. Those willing to help will be able to do so, while those who do not want to will be free to cower in their homes and wait to see what happens."

Nathan glared down at her. "Am I right in assuming that you will be going to help then, Daniella?" He asked.

Daniella smiled slightly. "Damn right I am."

Her admission served as a sort of challenge to other Moroi, and I watched in awe as most of the courtroom stood up and pledged to help.

I couldn't help the satisfied smile that spread across my lips. If Victor Dashkov wanted a war, well he was going to get one. And even if I had to see to it personally, that son of a bitch was going to die.


	25. Chapter 25

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

I was happy about the Moroi support for the battle that we were going to rage against Victor. In my opinion, the bastard had it coming. He had crossed a line when he threatened the Moroi people, one that was serious enough to make most of them willing to fight him. And he had pushed my fuck-with-Rose-Hathaway-and-die button to the extreme when it came to Lissa. Not to mention, he tried to have me killed at least twice now.

I was kind of riding a major euphoric high as I looked around at all the raised hands. This battle wasn't going to just be huge, it was going to be epic. It would change the Moroi and dhampir world as we knew it. Our entire future was depending upon the success of what some of the more hesitant Moroi were hailing as a suicide mission.

Me personally, I felt that the sacrifice was more than worth it. If we managed to defeat Victor and his strigoi army then I would gladly give my life for the cause. No matter what, even if Moroi come to their senses and decided that it's a good idea to fight alongside us for good, they still came first in my mind.

Things settled down in the courtroom and some people began to stand up and make their ways to the door. The Council, however, wasn't finished with their agenda for the day. One of the Council members stood up, and cleared his throat. If memory served me, he was the actual Ivashkov Prince, not just Nathan on a power trip. "We have one other issue to discuss. After much deliberating over the last few days, we have decided to announce whom we have chosen as Queen Tatiana's successor." Yeah, that had everyone returning to their seats. As it was, I even sat back down in the defendants seat and gave my apt attention to the Council.

"This was not an easy decision. It was hard for us to choose a new leader, although it was made easier by the fact that Queen Tatiana had, on several occasions, hinted that when it was time for her to retire she would appoint Vasilisa Dragomir as her successor. In honor of her wishes, we too have decided that Princess Dragomir would make an effective leader. Therefore, we officially appoint Vasilisa Dragomir the new Queen."

Everyone, including Lissa, was speechless. She had no idea that she was still being considered for the job. After a few agonizing seconds of silence, the entire room erupted into cheers and applause and I saw Lissa smile as a result.

I was so excited for her that I ran up and threw my arms around her. "Congratulations Lissa!" I told her. I wasn't sure if she was still mad at me, but I didn't care. It wasn't everyday that your best friend is named the leader of the Moroi world.

Lissa returned my embrace. "Rose, I am so sorry that I was mad at you about what you asked me to do. And just so you know, if it wasn't for the fact that Adrian told me his plan to take the blame, I would have never said you were guilty, even if it was your so called 'dying wish.'" She told me.

It was another hour later, after Lissa had received many blessings and congratulations, that we made our way out of the courtroom.

The meeting that my mother announced was going to be held in an hour in the Guardian's building, which left me with some time to kill. Unsurprisingly, I wanted to spend that hour with Lissa, just the two of us. She seemed to be thinking along the same lines, because as soon as we made it out of the courtroom, she grabbed me by the hand and dragged me off in the direction of my room before anyone else could catch up to us.

I opened my door, not surprised to find that it was unlocked, and looked around at everything that I owned. God, it was good to be home. Lissa and I went and flopped down on my bed, and I turned to her waiting for her to speak.

There is something seriously bothering Lissa, I can tell through the bond, but she doesn't say anything at first, and I quickly realize that I am going to have to coax it out of her. "What's wrong Liss?" I ask.

Lissa sighs and looks over me. "I want you to be happy. You deserve to be happy. I am going to ask you something and I want you to answer me honestly."

I swallowed. I had a feeling I was not going to like the question that Lissa was about to ask me.

"And Rose, just remember. I may not be able to hear your thoughts, but I know how to read you, and I will know if you lie to me." She continues.

After staring at he in disbelief for a few seconds, I finally sigh. "Alright Liss, what do you want to know?"

"I want to appoint you as the head of my Royal Guard, but I am only going to do so if being my Guardian is what will really make you happy." She began, and I starting laughing.

"Is that what this is about? Of course I want to be your Guardian, Liss. It's all I have ever wanted. You mean more than anything else to me."

Lissa smiled. "I thought so."

"Well, if that's it then, take this as my official acceptance of the job." I say, throwing my arms around her and giving her a huge hug.

Lissa pulled away to look at me seriously. "That's not all, Rose. Like I said, I want you to be happy. So I want to know, are you happy with Adrian? Do you love him?"

I looked down at the floor and then met Lissa's gaze again. "He makes me happy. I love him." I answered her.

Lissa rolled her eyes. "Right, well I love him too, and he makes me happy, but that doesn't mean I'm in love with him. I want to know, are you _in _love with him. Do you feel like he is the love of your life or whatever?"

For a split second I consider trying to lie to her, but I know it would be no use. Like Lissa said, she could read me like a book. So I bite the bullet, and I tell her the truth. "Am I in love with? Yes. Is he the love of my life? No."

Lissa nods. "You're still in love with Dimitri, aren't you? He is the love of your life?" She asks.

I hang my head in defeat. "Guilty on both accounts."

Lissa puts a hand on my shoulder and sighs. "Then you need to be honest with Adrian, and tell him that. And you need to tell Dimitri that, too. Quit playing with them, Rose, because in the end, all of you will end up hurt."

I sigh. I hate it when Lissa makes perfect sense.


	26. Chapter 26

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Of course, I knew that Lissa made a good point. It wasn't fair to Adrian, Dimitri, or myself for me to pretend that I had just gotten over Dimitri and was now madly in love with Adrian. I loved Adrian, but it wasn't that earth shattering chase-you-around-the-world love that I felt for Dimitri.

I wanted to give Adrian a fair chance. But it was hard when my thoughts constantly drifted to Dimitri, to the life that he promised before Nathan, the strigoi, ripped it from me.

A lesson that I have learned over the past few month is that what is right isn't always fair, and what is fair isn't always right. I owed Adrian a fair shot, but I knew in my heart I had to do what was right. I had to tell them both the truth.

It sucked. I stood to lose both of them by doing this, but I had to. It didn't mean I had to do it right away though. I could wait until after the battle and let the chips fall where they may, as they say.

Or at least, that was what my plan was. Lissa, apparently had other motives, because as soon as we left the comfort of my room to go to we ran into Dimitri, by himself.

He walked right up to us, looking every bit the bad ass God that he is, and inclined his head towards Lissa. "I was worried what happened to you, I should have known that the two of you were off together." He smiled.

Lissa smiled back at him. "Yeah. Well, um, listen. I have to go find Christian before the meeting, so I'm just going to excuse myself." She told him, hurriedly.

"Oh, well, I'm sure we can go with you." He answered.

"Uh, Rose has something she needs to discuss with you." She said, immediately turning on her heel and walking away. Wow Liss, way to throw me under the bus.

Dimitri watched Lissa walk away and then turned to me in confusion. "What's going on?" He asked me.

"Uh, where is Adrian?" I asked, trying to stall from time.

Dimitri rolled his eyes. "He's at the bar, drinking away his problems."

For a moment, I forget what I need to talk to Dimitri about. "What! We have the biggest battle our world has ever seen tomorrow and he's off getting hammered?" I can't hide the outrage in my voice.

Dimitri glances at me carefully. "Rose, maybe you should give the guy a break. He had a lot to deal with today. He realized a lot, in a very short span of time." He answers, and it is my turn to look confused.

"What?" I ask.

"Never mind. I'm sure he'll talk to you about it when he feels the time is right." Yeah, cryptic Dimitri, not my favorite. "So, Rose, what is so important that Lissa felt the need to give us some privacy?" He asked.

Oh, God. This is it. I am not usually a coward, in fact I'm pretty fearless. But at the moment, I felt like I might throw up. "Uh, okay." I take a deep breath and pour my heart out. "Look Dimitri, I know this is not the best time. It's probably the worst time in the history of the world, but I have to get this out." I choke a little and look down at the floor embarrassed.

Dimitri puts a hand on my chin and lifts my head so that I meet his gaze. "What is it?"

I sigh, and then let the words fall from my mouth. "Dimitri, I love you. When you… died, all I could think about was dying with you. Don't get me wrong I love Adrian, too. But he will never mean to me what you did. And I can't live my life happily knowing that I didn't at least try to talk to you one last time." Jeesh, I felt so pathetic practically begging Dimitri. "And well, I don't know if you will ever love me like you did. But, uh," Hell, here goes nothing. I cut myself off and reached out and grabbed Dimitri by the shirt, pulling him to me and crashing my lips against his.

Dimitri doesn't pull away, instead he kisses me back with equal fervor, his hands moving through my hair, caressing it slightly.

It went on for maybe a moment, before Dimitri pulled away. He held me away from him, sadness in his eyes. "_Rosa_," he purred. "I can't-,"

I knew from the minute our lips met that this probably wouldn't end well. What can I say, though? I'm a glutton for punishment. I turned away from Dimitri, determined not to let him see me cry. "I know, comrade. You can't ever love me like you used to." I told him, turning and taking off at a dead run in the direction of the Guardian's building.

"Rose!" Dimitri matched my pace easily, coming up beside me. "Let me explain." He begged, but I wasn't interested. This was just going to hurt me more, and I couldn't handle any more pain.

I came to an abrupt halt in front of the doors of the building and turned to him. "Forget about it, okay Dimitri? Let's just both agree to let it go." I told him, and then I pulled open the doors to the building and walked in.

I tried to stifle my gasp of shock, but it just wasn't possible. I had never seen the building so full of people.

I had a little trouble navigating through the dense crowd, but eventually I made it to Lissa and Christian, who were standing with Daniella, my mother, Abe, Mia, Eddie, and Mikhail.

"Hey guys." I greeted them, as Dimitri came up behind me.

My mom and Abe had been engaged in a very private conversation, whispering to one another and standing far too close for my comfort, but as soon as I made my presence known she turned her gaze to me. "Good, you're here. We can begin." She said.

"Why did you need me to be here to begin?"

My mother gave me what could only be described as a patronizing look. "Because Rosemarie, you and I are leading this expedition." Um, didn't expect that.

Honestly, it was as flattering as it was overwhelming. An hour ago, I was a murderer and now I was a respected member of the Guardian world again. So much so, that people were willing to follow my plans without question.

My mother dragged me to the front of the room and called the meeting to order, and then once we had everyone's attention motioned for me to begin speaking.

I thought about the best way to go about our mission and finally came up with a plan I felt might work. "Alright, Victor has obviously left Court, and he will be returning tomorrow. I say we surround him from all sides, and we don't even allow him to get through the gates. We will need to practice, and a lot of the Moroi will need to learn how to defend themselves. So, my idea is that all the Moroi break off into groups based on what they have specialized in, and the Guardians will go around to the groups and offer advice and teach them some basic maneuvers. Tomorrow we will arrive at the gates one hour before sunset and there we will wait." No one protested to my plan, and so I took that as agreement, and motioned for everyone to begin.

Much to my shock, I wasn't the only one who wanted to make a major announcement tonight. Abe also wanted to get something off his chest.

"Before we begin, I have a question to ask you, Janine." He began, and both my mother and I turned to stare at him in shock.

"What?" She replied.

"Janine, I have loved you for a long time. But circumstances kept us from having a real relationship. But, things have changed. I think that opinions are changing and so I feel that this is the perfect opportunity to ask you this. Will you marry me? I know that you won't give up your job protecting Lord Szelsky, and I'm not really going to stop," his expression melted into something amused. "Doing what I do, but I figure we can work it out."

I was outright speechless. Janine was speechless. And then both of us looked at Abe and shouted, "What the hell?" Only mine was more like, what the hell was he thinking, while my mom's was more like what the hell, why not?

She strolled over to where Abe was standing, threw her arms around him, and said. "Sure Abe. Why not?" I thought I was going to be sick.

After the shock of Abe's announcement wore off we all set to work. We were at it for hours before I finally decided that we needed to rest.

That night, I went to my room and laid down in my own bed, so happy to be back home that I couldn't help but drift right to sleep.

It wasn't long until I felt myself get pulled into the familiar feeling of an Adrian dream.

Tonight he had chosen a very unusual location. The Nightingale in Russia. I recognized the club from my previous time there, and I couldn't help but be confused.

Adrian didn't bother changing our clothes and as I looked at him, I noticed the defeat on his face.

"Little dhampir," he said.

"Adrian."

"We need to talk. I don't think things are working between the two of us. I know that you still love Dimitri, and I'm tired of trying to make you choose. It's just hurting both of us. So, I'm going to make this easy, I think we should just be friends."

Not what I had been expecting. "Adrian, I-," I started but I didn't know what to say. Finally, I took a deep breath. "I'm not going to change my mind. Dimitri and I won't ever be together, and I love you. I want to make us work."

Adrian just shook his head. "Rose, it's not fair to either of us. You may love me, but I will never mean to you what Dimitri does. If I thought that I had a real chance, trust me, I wouldn't give up. But even I know, I can't compete with soul mates, and that is what you and Dimitri are."

I felt tears come to my eyes as I realized that Adrian wasn't going to budge on the subject. And the truth was, he was right. I would never love him as much as I loved Dimitri. "Adrian, I'm so sorry I hurt you." I tell him honestly.

Adrian surprised me by laughing. "Don't worry about me little dhampir. I'll be all right. I'll find someone who will love me as much as I love them."

"Do you hate me?" I asked.

Adrian walked up to me and pulled me into his arms, kissing me on the top of my head. "I could never hate you Rose. It's not your fault, you can't help how you feel. Like I said, we will still be friends. And I'll be okay." He said.

"Are you sure about this Adrian?" I asked.

"Oh, Rose. You will always mean the world to me, but there are plenty of fish in the sea, and someday I'll catch one that I can sweep off her feet as much as she sweeps me off mine."

I smiled at him, tears still coming down my cheeks and kissed him softly on the lips. "I love you Adrian."

Adrian smiled back at me and wiped the tears from my eyes. "I know, little dhampir. It's just not enough."

And then he melted away leaving me heart-broken in my bedroom. I hadn't just lost one love tonight. I lost two.

Maybe, in light of all of the awful things I had done lately, I got what I deserved.

**A/N: I just wanted to share my broken heartedness over this chapter. I am totally team Adrian, but even I can admit that in the real story, she isn't going to end up with him. It took a lot of time for me to accept that fact and write this part, but in the end, I had to do what I felt was right. It sucks, but I can't always get what I want.**


	27. Chapter 27

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

By the time I had to get out of bed to get ready for battle I was fairly certain I hadn't slept more than two hours the whole night. There were just too many things swimming around in my brain for me to be able to sleep peacefully. Needless to say, I wasn't at top form.

Even now, thoughts were still circling in my head. The conversations with Dimitri and Adrian, the severity of what was about to happen, my mom and Abe (Ew), Lissa being the Queen. All of these things were swirling, dragging me down and keeping me unable to focus.

I rubbed my face with my hands and then ran them through my hair. "Focus Rose, or else you wont be much help to anyone." I told myself.

I decided that a nice hot shower would be just what I needed to clear my head. So I got up and headed into my bathroom. As soon as I stepped into the shower, though, I was sucked into Lissa's head.

She was sitting in her room, Christian and Dimitri sitting with her. And she was crying. Through the bond, I could feel fear and sadness permeating from her. And of course, I really wanted to know what was distressing her.

I didn't have to wait long to find out. She turned to Christian, tears still streaming down her face. "I wish that I could go with you. I'm so scared for you guys, but they said that as the new Queen I am too precious to risk and I have to stay here and wait." What? Lissa wasn't coming? Suddenly, the pit that was forming in my chest got a little bigger.

Dimitri gave Lissa a serious look. "They're right you know. You need to be kept safe. We will take care of everything." Of course they were right! But, what was causing me so much apprehension was the idea that Lissa would be left here unprotected.

Lissa shook her head. "What if one of you got hurt? What if Rose gets hurt?" She choked out. Me? Once again, I wished that our bond worked both ways so that I could tell her not to worry, that I would be just fine.

Christian wrapped his arms around Lissa and pulled her close to him. "We're tough, we can take care of ourselves. Rose most of all. Hell, she is the best Guardian out there. She's practically untouchable." I couldn't help but smile at Christian's assessment of me. He may be a major jerk sometimes, but no one else (but me) has ever been able to tell Lissa how it is like Fireboy.

"I just hate to think that someone will get seriously injured and I won't be there to help them. What if someone dies because I wasn't there to heal them?"

Christian pulls away and smiles at her reassuringly. "Adrian will be there to heal if it is necessary. Try to keep yourself calm, everything will be okay."

Lissa shook her head once again. "I can't stay calm. The people who matter most to me are marching off to do battle and I may never see them again. And Rose, she is so reckless. I may never see her again." I feel a pang in my heart knowing that I am causing Lissa distress.

Dimitri grabbed Lissa's hand and squeezed gently. "Rose will be just fine. We will all be fine." He told her, and I could feel Lissa believe the sincerity in his words. Of course, Dimitri was a Guardian (and a damned good one), so even of he didn't actually believe that everything would be fine, no one would ever know.

Lissa observed Dimitri for a long moment, and then finally turned to Christian. "I need to speak to Dimitri alone for a minute. Will you give us some privacy?" She asked him.

Christian looked back at her questioningly and then shrugged his shoulders. "Sure. I'll just wait out in the hall."

Lissa watched as Christian exited the room, and then she turned her serious gaze to Dimitri. "What happened between you and Rose last night?" She asked.

I really didn't want to relive my humiliation so I tried to pull myself out of Lissa's head, but I couldn't. It was as if I was glued to her.

Dimitri shrugged. "She told me she was still in love with me, and then she kissed me." The only thing that kept me from banging my head against the wall was the fact that Dimitri looked just as pained as I felt over our love.

"And, what did you tell her?"

"I didn't say…" Dimitri trails off and clears his throat. "I couldn't say what she needed to hear." Yeah that's for sure.

Lissa actually looked angry when she spoke her next words to him. "You and Rose are meant to be together. Quit being so stubborn and be with her." She told him.

Dimitri opened his mouth, probably to defend himself, but Lissa quickly shut him up. "No. I don't want to hear your excuses. Let me tell you something Dimitri Belikov. You have had your life saved twice now. Hasn't that taught you anything? And I know that you love her. So quit being a coward and be with her. Don't waste the opportunity you have been given to do things right just because you are afraid of losing her. You of all people should know life is precious."

Dimitri looked like he had been gut-punched by Lissa. After a moment of just staring at her blankly, Dimitri finally took a deep breath and sighed. "I'm not good enough for her."

Lissa rolled her eyes in response. "That may be, but it is not for you to decide it is for her to decide."

At this point, I was finally able to pull myself out of her head.

Twenty minutes later, I found myself walking across Court to meet everyone at the front gates.

I found my parents surrounded by all of my friends, and went and stood by them. My mom noticed my arrival first and put an arm around me. "Rose, I just want you to know that I am proud of you." She whispered, and I felt a tear well up in my eye. That was probably the closest my mother and I had ever gotten to having a touching moment.

After that, everyone was quiet for a long moment. We all just stood and stared off into the distance, waiting for the sun to set and the Victor's army to show up.

It was as the sun was setting that Dimitri came up to me and pulled me away from our group. We walked out of earshot of other people, and then he spun me around to face him. "Rose," he began, but I didn't want to have another one of his rejections bothering me as I went into to battle so I stopped him.

"I know Dimitri. You can't love anyone. I don't need you to remind me." I turn to walk back to my friends and family, but he grabs me and pulls me into his arms.

"_Rosa_, sometimes I wish you would just be quiet once in a while. What I was going to say is that after this is done, if you want to talk about us, then I think that I would like to do that. I do love you, and I want to see if we can make something work." I think my knees might have given out at this point because the next thing I remember after that is Dimitri hoisting me back to my feet. And then he kissed me, one of those earth shattering, fireworks should erupt, trumpets play type of kisses that you hear about in movies.

I pulled away from him and stared into his eyes. For a moment, it felt like everything was perfect. It was just the two of us, and it was like he had never been gone in the first place.

And then I heard the sounds of people gasping and I turned my attention to the front gates. I could barely make out the form of the massive army Victor had built when both Dimitri turned and took off running. "What are you doing?" I asked him.

"I'm going after Victor." He answered.

I picked up my pace so that I passed him and then yelled over my shoulder. "No! Victor is mine."

Dimitri grabbed me, right as we reached the edge of our crowd. "No, Rose. We'll do it together." He said.

I smiled slightly. "Together, then." And then the two of us took off running once more.

We blew through the crowd of Guardians and Moroi and as a result they took off running after us. The war was beginning.


	28. Chapter 28

A/N: Sorry it's so short and it took so long, I was on vacation and couldn't get the internet to post it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Victor was a brilliant strategist. He had set up his army so they made a protective block around him, thus making it so none of the Guardians really had room to fight.

It did make it easier for the Moroi to focus their elements, though, and I was very grateful that so many of them chose to help us fight.

What we needed was a way to get them to break their ranks, and of course Christian and his Aunt Tasha had the perfect way to do it. I saw them both throw fireballs at the strigoi, and as they hit the first wave of Victor's defense, the strigoi broke apart, giving us just enough space to begin battling.

His 'frontlines' as it were, were not any threat at all and the Guardians picked them away easily.

Meanwhile, the Moroi continued to use their magic defensively, slowly chipping away at the thick block surrounding Victor.

I was in attack mode, all my other senses cut off completely. I felt like I was unstoppable, one after one, the strigoi I fought fell.

I could see Dimitri next to me, our fighting so similar that it wasn't hard to believe that he had taught me almost everything I knew. I also had a feeling that this was a lot easier for the two of us than it was for other dhampirs, given our history as strigoi killing bad asses.

But I couldn't focus on how others were doing right now, I could only focus on getting to Victor, who had to be hidden somewhere in the heart of his defense. I could only hope that our side was faring well, although I knew that there were casualties among us.

I was attacked by three strigoi at once, but I easily got the best of them, using a simple maneuver that, if I didn't know any better had caused Dimitri to smile slightly at me.

I felt that I had to be near Victor. But as I slowed down after noticing that the strigoi army was thinning, I realized that Viktor was nowhere near us.

Most of Victor's army were either dead or retreating, and those who weren't were just too shocked by the upset my group had caused in their ranks that they hadn't gotten the hint to move on before they died.

Dimitri killed two more strigoi before stopping beside me. "What's wrong, Rose?" He asked me, concern dripping from every syllable.

I was speechless as I looked around at the carnage around us. Many strigoi were dead, as were many dhampirs and Moroi.

Our injured huddled together in clusters, waiting for Adrian, who had a limp himself, to come and heal them.

Other than our few minor casualties, it appeared that we had won the battle, and defeated Victor's strigoi army. Which was how Dimitri saw it I was sure. "Rose, what's wrong? We won." He stated.

I turned to him slowly, formulating the words I needed to communicate carefully. "No, Dimitri. We won the battle. Victor won the war. He's not here."

Dimitri stared at me uncomprehendingly for a moment before everything clicked for him. "Rose, he has to be. He wouldn't just not show up for his own vendetta," it was about then that I felt a wave of fear so strong that it consumed me and I spun on my heel and began running, faster than I have ever run in my life.

"Rose," Dimitri began. "What are you doing?" I couldn't believe he didn't realize sooner.

"Don't you recognize your own teachings Dimitri? Lesson one, run. Lissa's in trouble." I yelled over my shoulder, and Dimitri began running after me.

We made it to the gates where Christian and Mikhail were leaning slumped against one another. Christian noticed my hurry and yelled after me. "What's going on?"

"Lissa!" I shouted, and both he and Mikhail began running after Dimitri and I.

We made it to the hallway that Lissa's room was located in record time, and we were just feet from her door when a figure stepped out of the shadows, and blocked our path.

The figure was wearing a long black dress, with a black sweat shirt over it, Her face covered by the hood she had pulled up.

The nausea in my stomach told me she was strigoi, and I readied myself to kill her. I didn't have time for this, Victor was hurting Lissa.

I lurched forward towards the strigoi, right as she reached up and pulled off her hood, and I skidded to a stop, right as Mikhail gasped in shock and fell to his knees next to me.

She looked down at Mikhail and smiled. "Hello, Mikhail." She said in a sweet voice that held none of the spirit-induced craziness that I had associated with her while she was living.

Mikhail let out a choked sob. "Sonya."


	29. Chapter 29

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Mikhail couldn't say anything more, he just stared up at her from down on his knees, looking just like a mortal worshipping a goddess.

I, myself, was speechless. I hadn't seen Sonya Karp since she had been a teacher of mine at St. Vladimir's Academy. It was actually due to her that Lissa and I had run away from the academy when we were fifteen. She had told me that I had to protect Lissa's secret at all costs, and that I should take her away from the academy. That was right before the Guardians had come and taken her away, because they thought she was crazy. Truth be told, she was, but it was because she was a spirit user and hadn't truly understood it.

Soon after that she had gone strigoi, only because being strigoi cut Moroi off from their magic. She had done it as a last resort, and Mikhail, her lover, had gone after her to free her of her undead state. Their love story was the parallel by which I had based mine and Dimitri's on after he had been turned strigoi.

Seeing her now was a bitter reminder of all of the things that I had to go through with Dimitri. My heart even went out to Mikhail. I understood better than anyone how easy it was to get caught up in seeing someone you loved without fully acknowledging what they were. When Dimitri had captured me in Russia, it had been because I had hesitated, just long enough for him to get the better of me. And I had hesitated every time after that until he was saved.

I knew that Mikhail wouldn't be able to do what he needed to do. He would hesitate just as I did, time and time again. And given the fact that we now knew that spirit users could bring strigoi back, I could understand his point. I just hoped that he would understand mine. I didn't have time for him to figure out what he wanted to do. Lissa was on the other side of Sonya, in grave danger, and as Dimitri would have learned if Lissa hadn't intervened, she was where I drew the line.

I shook my head to clear away the remaining shock that Ms. Karp's sudden appearance incited and then ran at her, my stake in hand.

She turned away from Mikhail to smile at me wickedly. It was just what I needed to obliterate any misgivings I had about killing her. There was no trace of the kind-hearted woman who had healed the cuts and scrapes I would get when trying to sneak out of my room at night. She was all strigoi, and if I didn't kill her she would kill all of us.

"Rosemarie, it is so nice to see you." She said in a cold voice, full of menace.

I gave her a sarcastic sneer. "I wish I could say the same."

"Are you going to kill me, Rose?" I could tell that she was amused by the thought and it made my blood boil.

"Yes, Sonya. I am." I told her and then I made to kick her.

The kick was perfect in form, it would have sent her to the floor easily, but it never made contact. Instead, I was thrown out of the way by Mikhail, who had leapt into me with a startling cry. "No!" He shouted.

I landed on the floor, Mikhail over the top of me, and pushed him off of me. "What are you doing?"

"We can save her! We can save her!" He replied, his eyes wild.

Dimitri ran up beside us and pulled Mikhail up. "You can't!" He shouted into Mikhail's face.

He pointed in the direction of Lissa's door. "She can!"

Dimitri shook his head. "She's blocking the way, we can't get to Lissa."

Mikhail stared at Dimitri uncomprehendingly for a moment, then slumped and turned to me. "Please, Rose. You understand better than anyone. Let me distract her, long enough for you to get to Lissa and save her. And then we can save her." He begged with pleading eyes. He put his hand on my shoulders and shook me slightly. "Rose, please. You understand better than anyone. Tell me honestly, if it was Dimitri standing there, and you knew that he could be saved, would you still be able to kill him?" He asked.

My eyes flashed to Dimitri, and for a second I remember seeing him as strigoi, and all the times that I couldn't kill him, even when I could have. Finally I sighed, and stood up. "Alright Mikhail. I just hope you don't die." I turned to Dimitri. "Help him."

Dimitri shook his head. "No. I won't let you face Victor alone."

I put a hand on Dimitri's face. "Listen comrade, I'll be fine. And I need you to help him. If it looks like he is going to die, kill her." Mikhail looked like he was about to protest, but I shot him a look that all but screamed for him to shut-up and he stayed quiet.

Dimitri nodded in concession, and turned to Mikhail. "Let's do this." Mikhail nodded and the two of them rounded on Sonya.

I looked back at Christian, who had come over to help me back to my feet. "Let's get Lissa." He said, the fear in his eyes.

"No, Christian. I go alone, I can't protect both of you in there. You need to stay out here. And if it looks like they're losing, set that bitch on fire." I instructed. Christian nodded and It looked over at Mikhail and Dimitri.

They attacked at once, throwing Sonya away from the door, and I made my move, slipping in behind them and through Lissa's bedroom door.

Victor had one arm around Lissa's waist, while his other hand gripped her hair in his fist. Robert Doru stood in front of her, holding a small silver stake.

"Come now, Vasilisa. Charm the stake. Do it for Uncle Victor." Victor crooned into her ear.

Robert looked uneasy. "I don't think she can do it again, Victor. It is just like me. I could do it once but I couldn't do it again." He whispered.

They hadn't noticed me, so I slammed the door shut behind me, causing all three of them to look over at me.

"Rose, how lovely to see you. You're just in time to watch Vasilisa bring me back to life." He told me.

I laughed. "Over my dead body."

Victor raised an eyebrow and tossed Lissa away from me and onto the floor. "That can be arranged."

Victor attacked me, fighting me with everything he had. He was a lot stronger than I gave him credit for, and he was so quick that I couldn't get hit on him.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Robert huddled in a corner, biting his nail and I saw Lissa crawling to the door. I knew I just needed to distract Victor long enough for her to get out the door.

I lunged at Victor once more, and he backhanded me with so much force that I flew through the air and into a coffee table, landing on my side with a sickening crunch. Immediately pain shot through my abdomen, and I felt as though I couldn't get enough air in my lungs. I had a feeling that I had broken a rib or two and that one of the broken ribs had pierced a lung. But I couldn't focus on that, I had to protect Lissa.

I sat up, and clutched my side. I could see Lissa, at the door. She had even gotten it open, but she had paused to stare over at when I had crashed into the table.

"Go!" I screamed and then I had another thought. I threw my stake at her and it landed at her feet. "Save Sonya if you can. And send in Dimitri as soon as you've save her!" I screeched at her, and through the bond I felt her comprehension.

"Rose I can't leave you!" She yelled back.

"Damn it, Lissa. Get the hell out of here." I saw Lissa flinch and then she turned and bolted out of the door.

I stood up and hobbled over to Victor. "You're either very tough, or very stupid. You just gave her your only real form of protection."

I shrugged. "They…come…first." I stuttered and then I pounced on Victor.

I wasn't quick enough, and he kicked me in the stomach again, his foot connecting with my broken ribs and sending the one embedded in my lung even further in.

I heard Ms. Karp scream in the hallway, and through the bond I felt that sensation that indicated that a strigoi had been brought back. It gave me the strength I needed, any minute Dimitri would come rushing in with his stake and the two of us would finish this.

I stood up and faced Victor. Robert was no longer huddled in the corner, but there wasn't enough time for me to look around for him.

Victor was walking around me and I began to follow his lead, the two of us circling each other in a deadly dance. As if by unseen signal, both of us attacked, the adrenaline pumping through my body temporarily dulling the pain I felt.

This time, I wasn't getting thrown around. I gave Victor everything I had and the two of us went at each other in a blur. Before I knew it, I got in a good kick to his stomach, sending us both crashing to the floor. I straddled over the top of Victor right determined to hold him until Dimitri ran in with his stake, and that's when I felt it, something pierce me in the shoulder.

"Ahhh!" I screamed and my arm flew back and smacked my assailant, who was Robert, right as I heard Lissa scream from the hallway, "Rose!"

Robert flew back wards and landed on his back unconscious, and I reached behind me and yanked the stake out of my shoulder and lunged it through Victor's heart.

Victor's eyes went wide, and in he spoke his last words. "Well done, Rosemarie. Too bad you won't live to bask in your glory." And then his hand shot up to my broken rib and he pushed it even further into my lung.

His arm went limp, and I knew he was dead. I slumped down against him, gasping wildly for the air that I could not get to fill my chest.

The door crashed open and Dimitri came flying to my side, scooping me up in his arms.

"Comrade…" I wheezed, lifting my hand to his face. My hand fell, and my head lolled back.

"_Roza_, stay with me. Please stay with me. I need you. I love you." He begged.

I took another ragged breath, and I smiled. "I love you Dimitri." And then everything went dark.

**A/N:**

**This is not the end of the story.**


	30. Chapter 30

CHAPTER THIRTY

Everything was white. There was a blinding white light, and a soft white mist that seemed to materialize from nowhere. My first impression of this binding whiteness was that I was dead, which considering the beating had taken from Victor was not that hard to believe.

I was actually kind of welcoming the numbing sensation coursing through my body. So many times I had fought to stay alive, and who know that I was actually running from absolute bliss and comfort.

Ahead of me I saw the face of someone I recognized.

It was Mason with his messy red hair, and freckles, he looked nothing like the Mason who had haunted me. The washed out, unhappy Mason who had come to warn me of all the horribleness that had been lying in wait for me, in fact… he looked like the Mason who had held me, the Mason who had been my friend at St. Vladimir's. The Mason who had given his life to save mine.

The sight of him caused a funny stirring in my brain. Odd considering that I was supposed to be dead.

I pushed that feeling away and focused on him. Putting on one of my trademark man-eating smiles I walked up to him. "Hey Mase, how's it going?"

Mason smiled back at me, a full on grin that made my heart beat hard in my chest. Once again, I was reminded that I should not have had that reaction since my heart should no longer be beating.

"Good." Mason ran a hand through his hair. "Really good actually, but I'm just wondering what you're doing here?" It was at this time that the look of sincere confusion and worry on his face registered with me.

My smile only faltered a little as I shrugged. "Same as you I guess. I'm dead."

Mason shook his head. "No, you're not dead. But if you stay here much longer you will be."

The shock of his words managed to wipe the smile right off my face. "Wh-wh-what do you mean. If I'm not dead than what am I doing here?"

"You're in an in between state. I guess you could call it a coma. But you still have time to go back, Rose." Mason moved forward to rest and arm on my shoulder and I backed away from him.

"I don't think I want to go back. I think I want to stay here. I like it here. It's peaceful and quiet, and stress free." I replied.

All humor and pity on Mason's face was replace by bitterness. "You have to go back. There are people who need you. Lissa needs you!" Her name was like a splash of cold water, and I flinched at the sound in his voice.

"Lissa needs you." He repeated more gently this time.

I sighed. "I know." I told him, and then I closed my eyes.

When they opened again I was lying in a hospital bed.

Lissa, with her pale blonde hair and jade green eyes sat on one side of my bed, tears and grief all over her face. Christian stood beside her, his chin resting on the top of her head, as he watched Lissa with his intent ice blue eyes, obviously worried about what she would do if I didn't pull through.

Adrian sat on the other side of me, his own green eyes etched with grief, the scent of alcohol and clove cigarettes surrounding him like a wreath.

At the end of the bed I saw Mikhail, his arms wrapped around Sonya, who's face was buried in his chest as she continued to sob, whether it was for me or for the terrible ordeal she's just been through, I couldn't tell you.

And Dimitri…gorgeous, brave Dimitri… I rarely saw him show emotion, but he was showing it now. His dark hair was hanging down and messy as though he had continually ran his hands through it in an attempt to relieve some of his grief. In fact, I could actually picture him doing just that. Tears ran silently down his cheeks. He lay right beside me on the bed, his arms splayed protectively over my torso as he glared around the room at anyone who made the slightest twitch.

I felt anger through the bond, when Lissa moved a hand towards me and Dimitri fixed her with a death glare. After a few seconds of prodding, a memory from when I was first brought in came to me from her through the bond. As soon as they had moved me into this bed, Dimitri had flung himself over me, and Lissa had moved to touch my face. Dimitri had freaked out on her, telling her and everyone else in the room that if the touched me, he would break their arms. Yep, Dimitri had snapped and lost control of his carefully maintained temper. The fact that he was now bonded to Adrian, and Adrian had been using a lot of spirit to heal during the battle, could not be helping situations any.

The thought of spirit brought another thought into my head. I was currently, and covertly since none of them had realized I was awake yet, looking at three spirit users, but somehow I still felt like I had been hit by a train, which led me to believe that none of them had tried to heal me.

Since I couldn't delve deep enough into Lissa's thoughts to find a reason for this, I decided the best way to get information was to just ask.

"Jesus Christ, you all look like someone just died." I croaked out.

Six people jumped.

"Oh, Rose you're alive!" Lissa exclaimed right as Dimitri pulled me into him and smothered me.

"Don't ever scare me like that again, _Roza_." He purred into my ear with that sexy Russian accent of his.

Adrian eyed me disapprovingly for a moment before shooting me a lop-sided grin. "That really wasn't a funny comment, little dhampir. For a minute I thought we really were going to have to have a funeral."

I couldn't really respond to anyone because Dimitri was holding me so tightly that I thought my lungs might explode. I did manage a pained "ow," however, and Dimitri promptly loosened his grip.

I tried to muster as much of my usual Rose-bravado as I could so that I could respond. "It'll take more than a crazy strigoi to kill me."

Dimitri rolled his eyes, and I glanced over at Lissa. "Hey, so, I'm in mega pain and as far as I can tell my ribs are still broken, so why didn't you guys heal me?" I asked.

Lissa sighed. "My connection to the magic is still weak from bringing back Miss Karp, and she is in no position at the moment to be healing anyone." She shot a reproachful look over at Adrian. "And Adrian," she started, but Adrian promptly cut her off, by waving a hand through the air. A hand that was currently holding a cup of some sort of liquor.

"Adrian, was self-medicating when he hear the news, so he can't touch the magic either." He stated with mock grandeur all the while shooting glares back at Lissa.

"Oh. Well alright then." I said before I closed my eyes and fell back asleep. I was suddenly very tired.

Later that night, once Lissa was able to come in and heal me and the doctor released me.

I walked her back to her dorm, stiff though feeling much better. When we reached the door, she turned and threw her arms around me, enveloping me in a crushing bear hug. "Rose, I was so worried about you. I really thought you were going to die, and there was nothing I could do to save you. Please don't ever do that to me again. Promise me Rose. Promise that you will never leave me." She begged.

I looked into Lissa's eyes, so full of fear that I really would leave her, and that determination I had always felt to protect her welled up inside me. "I will never leave you," I told her. With a bow, I added, "your Majesty."

Lissa rolled her eyes and stepped into her door. "I love you Rose. I need you, I always have and I always will."

I smiled at her. "I love you too, Liss. And I will always be here for you." After all, they come first.

I walked back to my own room in a daze, and was surprised to find Dimitri standing in front of my door.

I walked up to him, and stood, with my arms folded in front of me. After everything that had happened, I still wasn't one hundred percent sure where things stood with him. "Hey." I told him awkwardly.

Dimitri didn't bother with small talk. He rushed forward and pulled me into him, crashing his lips and kissing me so passionately that I was fairly certain that my knees were going to give out.

The kiss went on for quite sometime before Dimitri finally pulled away from me. He looked down on me, the depths of his brown eyes burning into me and brushed his hand against my cheek.

"Forever _Roza_. That is what I am offering you. Forever, the right way. I got re-assigned to Adrian, and we will all be living at Court. You and I can live together separately from them, while still doing our duties. If that's what you want."

I smiled at him. The way he said forever made it sound like the most attractive option in the world. Of course, that meant that I wouldn't technically always be by Lissa's side, just most of the time. Something told me that she would be okay with this though.

I brought my mouth up to his. "Forever." I murmured right before I kissed him again.

I mean, if I've learned anything it is that they come first, but sometimes it's okay to put yourself first, too.


	31. Chapter 31

A/N: It occurred to me that while my last chapter was the last chapter, some people may be curious what happened to everyone, so here is my predictions. There isn't really much story here.

TEN YEARS LATER

Ten years after Dimitri's impromptu proposal, and the two of us still live together in our little house at Court.

Lissa and Christian got married four years ago, and currently have a two year old daughter named, unsurprisingly, Rose.

Adrian, took up the post as Lissa's advisor where he met Adina, a non-royal Moroi, who was Lissa's secretary. The two of them were married last Spring, which of course served the dual purpose of pissing of Nathan and making Adrian happy, something I am all for.

The biggest shocker of all for Dimitri and I is our nine year-old son Max. Apparently two shadow-kissed dhampirs can have children with one another. Who'd have thought?

Lissa is a great Queen, who is well loved by all, and I am still the head of her Royal Guard.

Basically, our lives all worked out perfectly.


End file.
